Interestingly, The National Osteoporosis Foundation says ONJ occurs “rarely” in patients being treated with bisphosphonates. But a study in the Journal of the American Dental Association, published last January, reports that 4 percent of Fosamax patients at the USC School of Dentistry have “active ONJ.”

Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who’ll win the subsequent trials involving Merck and ONJ, the next of which is scheduled for Dec. 1?

I don’t know the answer to those questions. But I do know this – there’s already one loser here: the American system of jurisprudence.

No American drafted into service to their country, via the judicial system, should be subjected to what Juror No. 5, Theresa Ciccone, endured at the hands of her jury mates.

Here’s hoping for less vitriol and more “civil” in the next civil suits that come to trial.