Yaz Cases Made Part of MultiDistrict Litigation Proceeding
As reported by Kate Moser of the Recorder, over the past few months, women from all across the country have brought lawsuits against the makers of Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella for side effects and health conditions they suffered after taking those birth control pills.
Recently, these lawsuits were coordinated and combined into a special kind of case known as an MDL (MDL is an abbreviation for MultiDistrict Litigation).
The purpose of an MDL is to transfer all pending federal cases throughout the country that deal with a similar issue to one judge. The idea is that having one judge hear all similar cases is more efficient and allows the cases to move along quickly to avoid wasting money and resources. The decision whether cases should be transferred and combined into an MDL is made by a panel of seven federal judges known as the United States Judicial Panel on MultiDistrict Litigation (JPML). The Panel has a brochure describing its role.
The two main jobs of the Panel are:
- To determine whether similar cases that have been filed in different courts involve enough common factual questions so that the panel can transfer these cases into one court; and
- To select the specific court and judge to be assigned to manage those cases.
The Panel has recently transferred the Yaz and Yasmin cases into one MDL called In re: Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation (master docket number 09-2100). Judge David R. Herndon of the United States District Court of the Southern District of Illinois has been assigned to oversee this MDL.
Because of this coordination, any person who filed a federal lawsuit against Yaz or Yasmin, is likely to have her case brought within the umbrella of this MDL along with dozens, if not hundreds, of other similar cases.
