Strict Liability

Claims involving prescription drugs usually follow much the same principles as those used in assessing liability for any defective product, so an overview of the concept of strict liability will be useful in understanding what you will need to show in a claim based on the drug's side effects.

Ordinarily, to hold someone liable for your injuries, you must show that they were careless -- in legal terms, negligent -- and that their carelessness led to an accident or injury. With products such as drugs that are administered and sold to the general public, however, it would be extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive for one individual to have to show how and when a manufacturer was careless in administering or selling a drug. For these reasons, the law has developed a set of rules known as "strict liability", which allows a person injured by a drug to recover compensation from the liable manufacturer or medical professional, without showing that they were actually negligent.

The concept of strict liability can work in a number of ways in the prescription drug context. For example, liability can be found for a prescription drug if foreseeable risks of harm posed by the drug are sufficiently great in relation to the foreseeable therapeutic benefits of the drug. Also, a plaintiff who seeks recovery on the basis of strict liability for an injurious side effect from a properly manufactured prescription drug must prove both that the drug caused the injury, and that the manufacturer breached a duty to warn of the possibility that an injurious reaction might occur. For example, pharmacists and doctors share the blame for prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs without obtaining a sufficient medical history to ensure that problems do not occur. The FDA has recalled a number of drugs recently that have caused death or serious injuries to innocent victims of the pharmaceutical industry.

Theories of Liability

Depending on the facts and legal questions in your particular situation, your attorney may pursue a drug's claim on your behalf using one or more of the following legal theories:

• Inadequate warnings, or a failure to warn of a drug's potential danger or side effects (including reactions with other medications); against a physician or pharmacist.
• Prescription error by a physician or pharmacist.
• Inadequate testing on a medication prior to its use, which can include issues of testing on animals or humans; against a drug manufacturer.
• Over-promotion. An increase in more aggressive marketing and advertising efforts by manufacturers of prescription drugs (especially by pharmaceutical companies through print, internet, and television advertising) has led to a corresponding increase in liability for injuries attributed to the drugs being marketed; against a drug manufacturer.
• Defectively designed drug, one that is arguably unfit for its intended purpose; against a drug manufacturer.

While almost all medications have some anticipated side effects, a drug manufacturer has a duty to adequately inform physicians regarding the known risks associated with its drugs. If a manufacturer fails to do so, it can be held responsible to patients who are injured as the result of inadequate warnings, under a legal theory known as "product liability".

• Avandia
• Acetaminophen
• Accutane
• Ambien
• Aredia
• Baycol
• Bextra
• Celebrex
• Celexa
• Cialis
• Crestor
• Darvon (Darvocet)
• Depo-Provera
• Diclofenac
• Effexor
• Ephedra
• Evista
• Fluvoxamine
• Fosamax
• Gleevec
• Ketek
• Levitra
• Lexapro
• Meridia
• Mirapex
• Neurontin
• Paxil
• Pergolide (Permax)
• Prempro
• Promethazine HC1
• Prozac
• Risperdal
• Seroquel
• Serzone
• Symbyax
• Tamiflu
• Tequin
• Viagra
• Vioxx
• Zelnorm
• Zoloft
• Zometa
• Zyprexa
• Ortho Evra Patch
• Adderall
• Aleve

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• Defective Drugs

• Dangerous Drug - Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Site dedicated to medicinal drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.