With more than 13,800 lawsuits stacked up, NJ Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee has to do something. So, once again, she’s proposing four simultaneous trials writes The Star-Ledger of New Jersey (which owns Pharmalot). She attempted the same feat last year, but a host of scheduling issues - and Merck’s objections - nixed the idea.
The [...]

The drugmaker tried in vain to convince New Jersey Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee to overturn a pair of verdicts from last year that amounted to a split decision. A jury decided Merck failed to adequately warn two men about Vioxx risks linked to heart attacks and strokes, but determined the painkiller was a factor [...]

Mark your calendars. On April 16, the first Accutane trial gets under way in Madison County, Illinois, and two weeks later, another begins in Atlantic City, NJ, before state court Judge Carol Higbee, who is overseeing most of the 400 Accutane lawsuits that have been filed.
These first two trials involve men who say the acne [...]

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 [...]

Diane Sullivan has apparently stepped it in again.
She was found in contempt of court today by New Jersey State Court Judge Carol Higbee during the latest Vioxx trial in Atlantic City. Her faux pas - she presented a memo from FDA officials while cross-examining witness. Higbee had ruled it wasn’t supposed to be entered as [...]

The scrappy attorney, who works for the big Dechert law firm that represents Merck in the Vioxx trials in Atlantic City, ticked off the judge - again.

Sullivan was called “unprofessional, unethical and contempuous” by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee for violating an order. And in a previous trial in late 2005, Sullivan defied [...]

In one corner is Chris Seeger, a former boxer, who lost the first trial before New Jersey state court Judge Carol Higbee in the fall of 2005. His opponent is the scrappy Diane Sullivan of Dechert, whose pushy tactics prompted an unusually harsh rebuke from Higbee in front of an astonished courtroom.
But Higbee late last [...]