A Promise-Filled Settlement
A record $3.75-billion settlement moves a major class-action suit over breast implants a big step closer to resolution. Depending on the number of women alleging injuries and the number of manufacturers that decide to sign on, this agreement, tentatively approved Monday by a federal judge, could put an end to much of the legal wrangling over breast implants.
Toward that end, U.S. District Judge Sam C. Pointer Jr. of Alabama imposed limits on legal fees and appointed a respected Texas state judge, Ann T. Cochran, to administer the proposed settlement fund. Pointer’s actions are welcome.
About 1 million women received silicone gel breast implants in the United States between 1962 and 1992, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted their use. Many of the 12,000 lawsuits filed nationwide maintain that silicone leaked out of the implant pouches and migrated throughout women’s bodies, causing a variety of diseases. If it receives final approval after hearings scheduled for August, the proposed settlement would compensate women depending on their age and the severity of their injuries.
However, grumbling from some defense lawyers and manufacturers about the high legal costs, the scientific bases of the claims themselves and the now-severely restricted use of silicone implants highlights the continuing uncertainties and tensions inherent in mass personal-injury lawsuits.
Implant manufacturers and implant users have bargained in the shadow of substantial scientific uncertainty about the medical risks of silicone implants. There have been a few surprisingly high plaintiff verdicts, as well as snowballing claims and legal costs. The pattern is not an unfamiliar one. Substitute for implants a lengthy list of devices or substances whose use or exposure has generated widespread litigation: asbestos, Bendectin (an anti-nausea drug), the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device, DES (a drug linked to reproductive disorders), the pesticide DDT.
In many cases, asbestos most notably, the litigation has outlived some of the litigants and the legal costs long ago transgressed the bounds of propriety. The breast implant settlement offers hope that lessons have been learned.
