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There are many legal issues in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVCIP).  The program was originally conceived as an alternative to civil litigation against vaccine manufacturers and those who administered vaccines.  Initially, the program worked well, since many of the cases were included in a Table of Injuries, where it was presumed that the vaccine caused the injury.  For instance, DPT vaccine was presumed to cause encephalopathy and seizure disorders, and the aids to interpretation defined these conditions in such a way as to include most ot the children making such claims. 

HHS could not be satisfied with a program that was actually compassionate to vaccine victims, so they changed the Table of Injuries, eliminating most injuries from the table and making it almost impossible to show a table injury.  As a result, most cases had to be proven as cases of causation-in-fact.

The medical issues in NVICP claims are varied and complex.  After having litigated vaccine claims for nearly 30 years, Mr. Shoemaker reports that every case is different.  There are things that cases have in common, but each trial seems to offer new and different issues to deal with.

While there are certain injuries that seem to occur after most, if not all, vaccines, it is also true that each vaccine seems to have specific injuries (or types of injuries) associated with it.  What does this mean?

This firm has been lobbying for political changes to improve the NVICP for over 6 years now, and the results have been terrible.  Congress has been totally unresponsive to the needs of this program, and the HHS, DOJ, vaccine manufacturers and others have been satisfied to sit back and watch the program fail for Petitioners.  Those in government are constantly touting the program as a highly successful one, and for the vaccine manufacturers that has certainly been true.  They have been basically accountable to no one.  For the claimants, however, the program has often been a painful and futile experience that has added insult to the inuries their children have experienced.  Parents have had their credibility attacked, in a program where Special Masters have repeatedly ruled that if something is not in the medical records, then it must not have happened.