Yesterday the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Richmond, Virginia heard arguments for and against establishing a multidistrict litigation (MDL) for all federal Yaz and Yasmin litigation. A ruling on the matter is expected within a few weeks.

If the panel of federal judges opts to establish an MDL, all Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits pending in various federal courts throughout the United States will be consolidated before one judge for coordinated pre-trial proceedings. This will benefit the plaintiffs in the Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits by allowing them to share the costs of pre-trial discovery and avoid duplicative discovery. For example, in an MDL, depositions of certain people can be taken just once, every plaintiff gets to use them, and the cost is split among everyone.

While an MDL and a class action lawsuit are sometimes confused with one another, they are not the same thing. A class action is one case with many plaintiffs in it, whereas an MDL consists of many individual cases brought together for a short time.

As litigants await a ruling on the Yaz and Yasmin MDL petition, lawsuits continue to mount against Bayer Pharmaseuticals, the maker of the popular birth control pills. The lawsuits generally allege that Yaz and Yasmin cause life-threatening side effects and that Bayer failed to adequately warn consumers about those side effects. Serious Yaz side effects and Yasmin side effects may include heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism. Additionally, Yaz and Yasmin may both put patients at risk for a condition known as hyperkalemia. This condition is marked by increased potassium levels in the blood and often has no symptoms at all. If left untreated, it can lead to cardiac arrest and kidney failure.

If you or a loved one experienced serious side effects after taking Yaz or Yasmin, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. For more information about a Yaz lawsuit or a Yasmin lawsuit, contact one of Bernstein Liebhard’s Yasmin lawyers or Yaz lawyers for a confidential and free case evaluation.

Tags: Yasmin/YAZ, Yasmin/YAZ Lawsuits, Yasmin/YAZ MDL Hearing

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 11:34 am and is filed under Yasmin/YAZ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.