Vaccine Court

Vaccine court is the popular term which refers to the Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in state or federal civil courts, but instead must be heard in the Court of Claims, sitting without a jury. The program was established by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), passed by the United States Congress in response to a threat to the vaccine supply due to a 1980s scare over the DPT vaccine. Despite the belief of most public health officials that claims of side effects were unfounded, large jury awards had been given to some plaintiffs, most DPT vaccine makers had ceased production, and officials feared the loss of herd immunity.

Some parents of children with autism spectrum disorders have mistakenly attributed the disorders' onset to vaccines, often citing the mercury-based preservative thiomersal as the cause, and have demanded compensation from vaccine makers. The medical and scientific communities have consistently found no link between routine childhood vaccines and autism.