Commentary 1/17/06

From Cyberlaw

• If you were pregnant and were experiencing debilitating nausea and vomiting, would you take Bendectin?

- there are other, safer drugs on the market now. my guess is that when women were taking bendectin they had no idea of the risks involved. the drugs available for pre-natal nausea now are 'perfectly safe', my doctor told me when i was pregnant. so i took them, because my nausea was really unbearable. but i was always a little bit afraid.

• Are the similarities between the facts of the crime in My Cousin Vinny and the facts in the Hurricane Carter case purely coincidental?

• Does anyone know how expert evidence is handled in civil law countries, or even other common law jurisdictions? I have heard (pure hearsay) that some civil law regimes have procedural mechanisms to allow for professional judges; for example, on a panel of three judges (not a jury trial), one of the judges would be a professional/expert in a relevant field, while the other two judges would be judicial officers.
  • Also, any international experts know how negligence is handled in other regimes?