What is the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?
The program was enacted to minimize the exposure of drug companies to liability for personal injury suits. Congress enacted legislation to allow claimants to make direct claims with the United States government through the Human Resources & Services Administration. Claimants seek compensation for injuries due to side effects caused by vaccines. The program started in 1989. Since that time only 7,000 cases filed. Less than half of those cases resulted in compensation to victims. Total compensation over the 30 year span has been in excess of $4 billion.
This program run by the Federal government is an administrative remedy. It is similar to worker’s compensation for an injured worker.
The cost is cheaper to make a claim in this Federal procedure. The injured party has little in discovery and litigation costs relative to a product liability case. However, if the claim does not fit within one of the narrowly proscribed claims for vaccine side-effects listed in a table, then the injured party still has to prove many of the same elements that are necessary to win a product liability case. So if there are known side effects of a particular vaccine, the claimant would be successful.
Many times, a claimant may have an unknown vaccine side effect. So if that person had an unknown side effect, the case would not be successful under the program. That is the reason there have been only 7,000 cases filed.
State Claims
Many attorneys would advise their clients to bring a product liability case in state court rather than Federal Court because of the Daubert standard. (Daubert was a US Supreme Court case explaining the scientific standard for proof in claims brought in Federal Court, which is generally higher than the proof in state court.) But each case would need to be evaluated on its merit.
By James Santner, Esq.
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