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CHCC Decision Database - Detail & Summary Screen
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In Althen v. Sec'y of HHS, a landmark decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court lightened the burden of proof for petitioners in the Vaccine Program. Previously, the courts had described a petitioner's burden as "heavy lifting." However, the Court made clear a person need only show a vaccine was the likely cause of the injury. While expert testimony will still be necessary to prove a claim, the expert may base the opinion on circumstantial evidence, rather than direct, objective conclusive scientific evidence. A petitioner need only show: (1) a medical theory causally connecting the vaccine and the injury; (2) a logical sequence of cause and effect showing the vaccine is the reason for the injury; and (3) a proximate temporal relationship between the vaccine and the injury. Close questions of causation, the Court ruled, should be decided in favor of the petitioner.
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