Most defense lawyers, if given the choice, would probably pick North Carolina and Montana over New Jersey and Rhode Island as places to try cases. But as we mentioned yesterday, the bisphosphonate litigation continues chugging along in its merry, contrarian way.

In the federal litigation that’s being thrown off by the Aredia/Zometa MDL, the score is now tied (after yesterday’s Hogan verdict in Rhode Island), 1-1. We’re told that Hogan was a defense pick.

Good pick.

In what we’re told was a case chosen by the other side, a North Carolina jury last year in Fussman brought back a $287,000 compensatory verdict together with an evanescent $12.6 million punitive award, according to Lexis. Actually, the compensatory verdict was $287,001, including a munificent $1 for loss(?) of consortium. Sounds like it wasn't much of a loss.

Not so good a pick.

Why? Because in Fussman the plaintiffs chose a case under North Carolina law. Thus, they ran afoul of that state’s punitive damages caps. Poof! T here went nearly $12 million of the $12.6 million punitive award. Since it was an early case, we presume it’s being appealed, too.