Less than 24 hours after fining Merck lawyer Diane Sullivan $1K for contempt of court, New Jersey State Court Judge Carol Higbee has changed her mind.

She issued an order this morning vacating her previous action. Sullivan, who had previously angered Higbee twice during Vioxx trials, yesterday presented a memo from FDA officials while cross-examining a witness. Higbee had ruled it wasn’t supposed to be entered as evidence.

We don’t know what persuaded the judge to do this. In reversing herself, Higbee didn’t explain the change of heart. But Higbee did write one cryptic line underscoring her annoyance at Sullivan: “This in no way means that the court finds that the statement made before the jury at a critical time on critical issues was proper.”

Nonetheless, Sullivan had best be careful. Her increasing clashes with Higbee are raising speculation that her behavior is either a carefully crafted strategy to throw the judge off balance or she’s fast becoming a different kind of liability for Merck, and should be replaced.

[tags]Carol Higbee, Diane Sullivan, Merck, Vioxx[/tags]