Toxic Torts: Science, Law and the Possibility of Justice

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 15
Introduction......Page 19
The Legal Admissibility of Expert Testimony and Scientific Evidence......Page 25
The Need for Scientific Studies......Page 26
Special Features of Toxic Substances......Page 27
Injuries May Long Precede the Scientific Understanding of the Causes of Injury......Page 31
The Science-Law Interaction......Page 34
Walter Allen......Page 36
Lisa Soldo......Page 38
Melissa Globetti......Page 40
Ruby Quinn......Page 41
Robert Joiner......Page 43
Summary......Page 46
The Tort Law......Page 49
Complaint and Answer......Page 51
Pretrial Conferences......Page 52
Plaintiff ’s Burden of Persuasion......Page 54
Substantive Issues in the Tort Law......Page 55
Causation in Toxic Tort Suits......Page 56
The Role of Scientific Evidence and Expert Witnesses in Establishing Causation......Page 57
The Admissibility of Evidence......Page 58
Summary Judgment......Page 59
Some Procedural Puzzles......Page 60
Concerns about the Companies......Page 63
Perception of a Tort Law Crisis......Page 64
The Supreme Court Daubert Litigation......Page 65
The Admissibility Picture after the Daubert Trilogy......Page 74
Critiques......Page 76
Correctives......Page 77
Conclusion......Page 79
3 Institutional Concerns about the Supreme Court’s Trilogy......Page 80
Obvious Lessons......Page 81
Epistemic Presuppositions......Page 86
Judge-Jury Responsibilities and the Right to a Jury Trial......Page 88
The Intellectual Rigor Test......Page 90
Review of Weight-of-the-Evidence Methodology......Page 93
The Distinction Between Methodology and Conclusions......Page 97
“Fit”......Page 100
Access and Process Bias in Toxic Tort Suits......Page 101
Pursuit of Truth and Justice in Torts......Page 106
Conclusion......Page 108
4 Studies of Toxicity and Scientific Reasoning......Page 109
Features of Biochemical Risks That Hinder Identification and Assessment of Harms......Page 110
Studies That Assist Causal Understanding......Page 112
Randomized Clinical Trials......Page 113
Epidemiological Studies......Page 114
From Statistical Association to Causal Conclusion......Page 120
Animal Studies......Page 123
Other Data Relevant to Toxicity Assessments......Page 129
Case Studies......Page 133
The Scientific Data......Page 135
Scientific Reasoning in Good Case Studies......Page 143
Principles of Reasoning Underlying Causal Inference......Page 146
Integrating Evidence......Page 154
Causal Inferences in Epidemiology......Page 158
The Importance of Scientific Judgment......Page 160
Scientific Disagreement......Page 162
Scientific Disagreement about Fundamental Issues......Page 163
Scientific Disagreement about More Practical Issues......Page 165
The Fact of Reasonable Scientific Disagreement......Page 169
The Methodology-Conclusion Distinction......Page 170
Conclusion......Page 173
5 Excellent Evidence Makes Bad Law......Page 175
Scientific Ignorance about the Chemical Universe......Page 178
Resource Limitations......Page 183
Corporate Failure to Determine the Safety of Their Products......Page 184
Low Concentrations Can Be Toxic......Page 188
Rare Diseases......Page 191
Lack of Signature Effects......Page 193
Weak vs. Strong Causal Effects of a Substance......Page 194
Lack of Mechanistic Understanding......Page 196
Substances That Are of Little Research Interest......Page 198
General Considerations......Page 200
Interpretive Issues......Page 201
Inattention to the Distribution of Mistakes in Scientific Research......Page 208
Content-Oriented Hedging......Page 210
Writer-Oriented Hedging......Page 211
Reader-Oriented Hedging......Page 212
Communication between Science and the Law......Page 215
Conclusion......Page 218
Injuries Can Long Precede the Scientific Understanding of Their Causes......Page 220
6 Science and Law in Conflict......Page 223
Tension in Goals......Page 225
Tensions between Scientific and Legal Epistemic Practices......Page 230
Critical Stresses......Page 233
Judicial Responses to the Science-Law Interaction......Page 236
Specific Concerns from court Decisions......Page 238
Ideal Evidence Is the Enemy of the Good......Page 239
Demands for Human Epidemiological Evidence......Page 242
Special Restrictions on Epidemiological Studies......Page 245
The Unfortunate Consequences of “No Effect” Studies......Page 261
Demanding Mechanistic Evidence......Page 263
The Denigration of Animal Evidence......Page 266
Discriminating among Animal Studies......Page 270
Target-Site Arguments......Page 272
Chemical Structure–Biological Activity Evidence......Page 273
The Exclusion of Case Studies as Evidence......Page 274
Never Throw Evidence Away......Page 277
Requiring Detailed Exposure Information......Page 278
Lumping vs. Splitting Toxicological Evidence......Page 280
Confusing the Form of the Argument with the Standard of Proof......Page 282
Confusing the Likelihood of Causation with Statistical Evidence for It......Page 284
General and Specific Causation......Page 285
Defense Contributions to the Above Arguments......Page 288
The Intellectual Rigor Test......Page 290
Pursuit of Truth and Justice in Torts......Page 291
Conclusion......Page 297
7 Enhancing the Possibility of Justice under Daubert......Page 301
The Use of Court-Appointed Experts......Page 302
A Proposal......Page 304
Some Consequences of the Proposal......Page 312
Patterns of Toxicological Evidence......Page 314
The International Agency for Research on Cancer......Page 315
The National Toxicology Program......Page 318
Toxicologically Reliable Patterns of Evidence......Page 320
Learning from Reliable Patterns of Evidence......Page 331
Principles of Toxicology Underlying the Evidentiary Patterns......Page 333
Legal Decisions Exemplifying Sensitive Scientific Reviews......Page 337
Allen v. Pennsylvania Engineering, Inc.......Page 342
The Parlodel Cases......Page 346
General Electric v. Joiner......Page 348
Conclusion......Page 353
8 Is Daubert the Solution?......Page 355
Access and Process Bias in Toxic Tort Suits......Page 356
The Acceptability of Verdicts vs. a Focus on the Evidence......Page 361
Daubert and the Acceptability of Verdicts......Page 364
Daubert and Causation Requirements......Page 371
Where Might the Law Go from Here?......Page 375
A Return to Frye?......Page 377
Is There a Need for Tort Liability Reform?......Page 381
Conclusion......Page 384
Bibliography......Page 389
Index......Page 409