George Baxter (lawyer)

George Thomas Baxter is an attorney who fought for the rights of victims of AIDS and won the landmark verdict against the blood industry for allowing the United States blood supply to be contaminated with AIDS in the early 1980s. A resident of Ridgewood, New Jersey, Baxter was born in Passaic, New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers Law School in 1983.
Snyder v. American Association of Blood Banks
In the landmark case Snyder v. American Association of Blood Banks, 144 N.J. 269 (1996) the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the only jury verdict in the country finding that the blood bankers were negligent and concern over the cost of donor testing caused his client to be infected from contaminated blood. The evidence from the Snyder trial helped fuel the Congressional Investigation by the Subcommittee of Blood Safety into the Federal Food and Drug Administration's regulators and blood bankers that resulted in people getting AIDS tainted blood in the early 1980s. Baxter in fighting for the rights of patients infected with AIDS from contaminated blood won the right to donor discovery in Snyder v. Makhijan, 244 N.J. Super 281 (App. Div. 1990) which defined the rights of people infected by contaminated blood to sue the blood bankers.
Nominations
Baxter was nominated for Trial Lawyer of the Year for his work representing the rights of Health Care Consumers and Patients infected with AIDS by contaminated blood and won several landmark court cases. "1995 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award Finalists, TLPJ Foundation."

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