Sick Transit

From an article about Edwards’ reliance on questionable science in his trial-lawyer days:

Talk about obvious… do they expect a trial lawyer to favor a dull, academic, unemotional presentation?

Edwards’s specialty, for a time, was suing obstetricians for negligence in cases where a baby was born with cerebral palsy. The article interviews various experts who, based on current knowledge, say that cerebral palsy is hardly ever caused during delivery.

The article also indicates, however, that the strongest evidence for that conclusion is only a year old. So the real question is, how clear was the evidence at the time that Edwards was pursuing these trials? There’s a big difference between interpreting scientific uncertainty in favor of your clients, and relying on ‘junk science.’ Unfortuantely, the article doesn’t tell us which of those better describes what Edwards did..

(link via OverLawyered)