US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine Records

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US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine RecordsTue November 26, 2002 10:47 AM ETBy Todd Zwillichhttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews & storyID=1808546WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked afederal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases ofautism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court ofFederal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automaticdisclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when andhow the material should be released.Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged thatthe government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts,where juries might be conv

inced to award large judgments against vaccinemanufacturers.The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by thefamilies of autistic children. The suits charge that themeasles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included amercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal [sic], can causeneurological damage leading to autism.Federal law requires suits against vaccine makers to go before a specialfederal "vaccine court" before any civil lawsuit is allowed. The court wasset up by Congress to speed compensation claims and to help protect vaccinemakers from having to pay large punitive awards decided by juries in statecivil courts. Plaintiffs are free to take their cases to state courts ifthey lose in the federal vaccine court or if they don't accept the court'sjudgment.The current 1,000 or so autism cases are unusual for the court. Because itreceived so many claims, much of the fact-finding and evidence-gathering isgoing on for all of the cases as a block.Monday's request by the Bush Administration would prevent plaintiffs wholater go to civil court from using some relevant evidence generated duringthe required vaccine court proceedings.Plaintiffs' attorneys said that the order amounted to punishment of thefamilies of injured children because it would require them to incur thetime and expense of regenerating evidence for a civil suit."Wouldn't it be a shame if at the end of the day our policy would be tocompensate lawyers," said Jeff Kim, an attorney with Gallagher BolandMeiburger & Brosnan. The firm represents about 400 families of autisticchildren who received the MMR vaccine.Kim accused the government of trying to lower "a shroud of secrecy overthese documents" in order to protect vaccine manufacturers, who he saidwere "the only entities" that would benefit if the documents

are sealed.While federal law clearly seals most documents generated in individualvaccine cases, it has never been applied to a block proceeding like the onegenerating evidence in the autism cases.Administration lawyers told Special Master Hastings that theyrequested the seal in order to preserve the legal right of the Secretary ofHealth and Human Services to decide when vaccine evidence can be releasedto the public.Justice Department attorney Matanoski argued that to let plaintiffsuse the vaccine court evidence in a later civil suit would confer anadvantage on plaintiffs who chose to forgo federal compensation."There is no secret here. What the petitioners are arguing for are enhancedrights in a subsequent civil action," Matanoski said of the plaintiffs."They're still going to have unfettered use within the proceedings."Hastings would not say when he would issue a ruling on whether to s

eal thecourt documents, but did say that his decision would be "very prompt."*The material in this post is distributed withoutprofit to those who have expressed a prior interestin receiving the included information for researchand educational purposes.For more information go to:http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.htmlhttp://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htmIf you wish to use copyrighted material from thisemail for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', youmust obtain permission from the copyright owner*.*