First NuvaRing Injury Trial Set For May 2013

The date has been set for the first NuvaRing injury lawsuit trial in New Jersey state court against Merck & Co. and its subsidiaries, Organon BioSciences and Schering-Plough. May 6th is the date – and thousands of NuvaRing injury victims with similar lawsuits pending in state and federal courts will be watching closely.

That’s a question thousands of women who have filed NuvaRing injury lawsuits would like answered. For now, plaintiff Erika Medina’s lawsuit alleging NuvaRing side effects such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) injuries will take center stage.

NuvaRing injury lawyers say the outcome of Medina’s case may set the tone for other pending lawsuits and could result in the manufacturers’ willingness to settle cases instead of going to trial over and over again. Approximately 1,200 lawsuits are pending in New Jersey state court and Missouri federal court.

• New Jersey. Over 200 NuvaRing lawsuits have been centralized for coordinated management before Judge Brian R. Martinotti in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Bergen County. The Medina case was one of the first product liability lawsuits filed in 2009 and is the first to go to trial.
• Missouri. Over 1,000 NuvaRing lawsuits have been consolidated for pretrial proceedings as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is centralized before U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Bellwether trials, the first trials conducted in MDLs which give both sides an idea of the issues that will arise and how juries react to evidence, were supposed to begin in 2012. However, they have been postponed several times – leaving many to suspect that manufacturers were seriously considering their settlement options.

NuvaRing Claims Similar In Both Venues

Regardless of where lawsuits were filed, NuvaRing injury claims are generally similar and allege injuries such as blood clots, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism and other potentially life-threatening health problems.

Most plaintiffs allege that Merck & Co. and its subsidiaries, Organon BioSciences and Schering-Plough, failed to adequately research the medication or warn about the potential increased risks when compared to older forms of birth control pill.

If you’ve been injured, contact The Driscoll Firm, LLC, to discuss your situation at no cost and with no obligation. Find out for yourself whether you might be entitled to compensation for your injuries so that you can decide what next steps, if any, are in your best interests.