Pre-trial proceedings for nearly 25,000 Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits are underway in a federal courthouse in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits have been filed by women all over the United States, but all the cases will be handled by U.S. District Chief Judge David Herndon as a multidistrict litigation assignment.
Herndon will be presiding over the pretrial discovery. He may then hold “bellwether trials” that will serve as examples for courts in other districts around the country, says Herndon.
In multidistrict litigation (MDL), civil lawsuits making similar legal claims filed against a common defendant in different federal districts are moved to a single district for pre-trial matters, such as discovery and evidentiary rulings, in an effort to avoid duplicate fact-finding and inconsistent pretrial rulings.
The decision to hand the cases to Herndon was made by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Washington D.C. The panel is made up of seven federal judges who are appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
The defendant in these lawsuits is Bayer Corp., the maker of the birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. In the Yaz/Yasmin lawsuits, the plaintiffs are alleging that the drugs cause heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolism, gallbladder disease, cardiac arrhythmia, kidney failure and even sudden death.
Health risks associated with Yaz and Yasmin have been linked to the drugs’ use of a new type of progestin called drospirenone. This hormone, which is not used in other birth control pills, may increase potassium levels in the blood, leading to a condition known as hyperkalemia.
If you or someone you love has been injured by taking Yaz or Yasmin, contact Fears | Nachawati today to receive free legal advice.
For more on the Yaz/Yasmin pre-trial proceedings, click here for the article from the Belleville News-Democrat.