In a stunning bit of news it was widely reported yesterday that the U.S. Government through the auspices of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
and HRSA conceded damages in the first landmark autism case to reach
the special masters, awarding damages in the Hanna Poling vs HHS. 
Scott Drake of The Legal Broadcast Network interviews one of the nations leading vaccine lawyers, Kevin Conway of the Conway, Homer & Chin Kaplan firm in Boston, MA. to discuss this important ruling and what it means to the 5000 or more parents of children who are contending that vaccines were a cause of their child's autism. This debate has raged for years, but just recently this test case was winding it's way through the vaccine injury program and the governments surprise decision to concede damages, but yet not providing the rationale for this decision, has only increased the confusion.
If you are a parent of an autistic child or are an attorney who has vaccine cases being brought to your office under the autism claims argument, be sure to listen to this brief podcast to learn more about what the ruling in this case means.
Click to listen to the entire podcast on the autism award in the vaccine injury program here.
However, of real interest to the settlement community is will this award and the resultant publicity and awareness of the vaccine injury compensation program bring fresh scrutiny to the fact that virtually no plaintiff experts are allowed to work in or represent these tragically injured children or victims? In what is still one of the dirtier secrets of the settlement industry few people realize that the program has systematically stripped families of the right to select a settlement broker of their choice to represent them in what is a MANDATORY annuity award. I'll be doing a long series of posts and podcasts on the vaccine program, the strange and troubling aspects of it's exclusion of plaintiff experts and what might be on the horizon to change this long standing practice.
