Back in March 2011, Fosamax manufacturer Merck moved the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) to consolidate all
Fosamax femur fracture lawsuits into one MDL case. (MDL No. 2243In re: Fosamax (Alendronate Sodium) Products Liability Litigation (No. II).) MDL simplifies the judicial process by granting plaintiffs equal access to the defendants pretrial disclosures and selecting one judge to rule on all motions to prevent inconsistent rulings. Unlike a class action lawsuit, MDL gives the plaintiffs the right to pursue their own claims in court, which allows them to seek compensation for the amount of damages that the defendant caused them. In a class action, the plaintiffs are compensated equally because their claims are identical, such as in securities litigation. In its motion, Merck requested the Panel send the MDL case to U.S. District Judge Garrett Brown of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the state Merck is headquartered in. It requested the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, before Judge Rebecca Doherty as an alternative.
Mercks motion has met resistance. Two plaintiffs who have already initiated their Fosamax femur fracture lawsuits are opposing Mercks MDL motion. The first, by Patrick Welch whose case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, argues that as of now there are too few femur fracture lawsuits to consolidate into an MDL case and that the existing ones should be sent to the ongoing Fosamax osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) MDL case. The ONJ MDL case began in 2006 and has already gone to trial in a few instances with a very large award for one plaintiff. However, the court in that case has already excluded femur fracture plaintiffs. The second plaintiff, Betty Miller whose case is set to go to trial before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in April 2012, claims MDL will complicate her trial.
Fosamax femur fracture lawsuits are moving quickly. If you took Fosamax and suffered an atypical low-impact femur fracture, contact the Rottenstein Law Group for a free initial consultation.
