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The Williams Bailey Law Firm, L.L.P.,
(Houston, Texas) has assembled a strategic alliance of the
leading law firms in the country to make people aware of the
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ("NVICP")
and vigorously prosecute
vaccine injury claims on a number of different
fronts" according to John Eddie Williams, Jr., Managing
Partner.
"We will be offering our clients
a full service individualized approach to vaccine injury
claims; from filing and administering claims under the NVICP,
to pursuing individual civil actions across the nation if
the Program denies a claim or awards an inadequate amount
of compensation for the adverse reactions suffered".
In 1986 Congress established the NVICP
to compensate victims, protect
vaccine manufacturers and health care personnel administering
vaccines from liability resulting from vaccine
related injuries and deaths.
Even though the enabling legislation that
created the NVICP requires the Secretary of the Department
of Health and Human Services to "undertake reasonable
efforts to inform the public of the availability of the Program",
most parents, teachers, physicians, and even many attorneys,
are unaware of the existence of this program, let alone the
three year (3 year) statute of limitations that may bar claims
that are not timely filed.
"The Secretary has obviously done
very little,
if anything to fulfill this directive, so we will," according
to Jeff Sell, an attorney working with the William Bailey
Law Firm.
The limitation provision buried within
the NVICP states:
"a vaccine set forth in the Vaccine
Injury Table which is administered after October 1, 1988,
if a vaccine-related injury occurred as a result of the
administration of such vaccine, no petition may be filed
for compensation under the Program for such injury after
the expiration of 36 months [48 months with respect to death
claims] after the date of the occurrence of the first symptom
or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation
of such injury." 42 USC Sec. 300aa-16.
The strategic "vaccine alliance"
includes: Williams Bailey Law Firm, L.L.P. (Houston), Conway,
Homer & Chin-Caplan, P.C. (Boston), Shoemaker & Horn
(Vienna, VA), Blizzard & McCarthy (Houston) and Hitt,
Patterson & Sell -- www.HittPattersonSell.com
(Houston) and others. Some of these firms have for years specialized
in representing individuals under the NVICP who have been
injured by vaccinations.
Vaccine
Injury Alliance Houston, Texas-August 15, 2001
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