Legal news! In a recent Case Management Order (CMO) signed by Judge Herndon, any new plaintiffs in the Yaz and Yasmin litigation can now file their individual cases directly in the MDL proceeding.
As you may recall from our earlier blog post, in October 2009 all federal lawsuits concerning Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella were centralized and coordinated into a special kind of case known as an MDL (MDL is an abbreviation for Multi-District Litigation). The purpose of an MDL is to take all pending federal cases throughout the country that deal with a similar issue and transfer the cases to one federal judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings to save time and resources. The MDL concerning Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella is called In re: Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL Case No. 2100, and it is being overseen by the Honorable Chief Judge David R. Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois.
Before this new Case Management Order (CMO) lawsuits were being filed by women in their state then transferred to the MDL. Now the CMO allows any new plaintiffs to file their cases directly into the MDL, which is a big time and money saver for all involved.
Here’s a blurb from the CMO:
“In order to eliminate delays associated with transfer to this Court of cases filed in or removed to other federal district courts, and to promote judicial efficiency, any plaintiff whose case would be subject to transfer to MDL 2100 may file his or her case directly in the MDL Proceedings in the Southern District of Illinois.”