The Alabama Supreme Court sided with drug companies Friday in deciding how to try the state government's lawsuit accusing the companies of causing about $600 million in overcharges to the Alabama Medicaid Agency.

Almost three years after a U.S. District Court jury returned an almost $2 million damage award against Continental Carbon Co. of Phenix City, the company is paying the city of Columbus, a south Columbus businessman and an Oakland Park resident what the jury said was their due. Plus interest.

Judge Eldon E. Fallon, presiding judge over the federal Vioxx consolidated proceedings, In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation MDL (No. 1657), ordered a new trial today in Evelyn Irvin Plunkett v. Merck & Co. Judge Fallon, a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, found that there was clear and convincing evidence that during the second trial of the Irvin case, Merck's expert cardiologist, Dr. Barry Rayburn, misrepresented his qualifications to the Court and to the jury.

A federal judge has ordered a third trial in a lawsuit by a woman who blamed Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx for the heart attack that killed her husband.

A federal judge has ordered a third trial in a lawsuit by a woman who blamed Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx for the heart attack that killed her husband.

Freeman, 48, was driving a tractor-trailer on the highway when he was involved in an offset frontal collision. On impact, the truck left the road and rolled over.

Today marks two years since 24-year-old Jackson Hatton Jr. was killed in a construction zone accident in Macon County, but circumstances that led to his death are no closer to being rectified than they were the day he died.

New accusations against equity index annuity sellers may lead to regulatory grief comparable to what property-casualty firms suffered during the contingent- commission scandal a couple of years ago, industry observers.

A Retired aerospace mechanic, Billy Wayne Woods babies his $200,000 luxury motor home, conscientiously cleaning it, covering its tires with wheel covers and even constructing a special RV- carport.

"Their retirement dream vacation turned into a nightmare,"said The family's attorney, Rick Morrison, of Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Ala.