Worldwide Web Watch

March 9, 2017

Take your victim as you find him (or her) is a well-established legal principle that, over the years, has grown in its application to include previously unidentifiable components.  More and more, cases are litigated involving an injury manifested from an external element’s impact on DNA, or from DNA’s reaction to an external factor.  People have all sorts of genetic mutations that predispose them to disease, making them more susceptible to certain outside influences.  Essentially, these are versions of genes missing the crucial set of instructions that would otherwise make them function properly when faced with an intrusion.  In Jurors in Toxic Tort Litigation Take Genetics Seriously, LSI Executive Council member Kirk Hartley and his co-author David Schwartz highlight not only this point but, more importantly, raise the issue of juries’ capabilities when it comes to understanding these types of correlations, and use a mesothelioma case as an assuring example.  Hartley and Schwartz optimistically note “[i]n our view, the questions asked by the jury are excellent. They highlight the view that the jury is engaged with the genetic testimony and is trying to appropriately utilize that testimony.”  This is good news in an environment that is often skeptical when it comes to juries’ competence and interest in the cases before them.