Pharmaceutical Lawsuits

Many people have heard of pharmaceutical companies being sued for various reasons in recent years. Pharmaceutical companies are ultimately responsible if there are problems with drugs that they have manufactured and are therefore liable to be sued more frequently than other companies.

Pharmaceutical lawsuits are not always going to be successful, so it is important that you give yourself the best chance of success when planning to file a lawsuit. Pharmaceutical companies have huge amounts of money that they can use to defend themselves before and after a lawsuit is filed.

So, if you are in a position where you want or need to file a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company, it is important that you seek legal advice before proceeding. Below, we have provided information about why legal advice is important, reasons why a lawsuit can be filed, and what you can hope to achieve by filing.

Why File a Pharmaceutical Lawsuit?

There are numerous reasons why a lawsuit is filed against a pharmaceutical company. Usually, it is because a drug the company has manufactured has had unintended consequences that have not been listed as a potential side effect.

An example would be the Suboxone lawsuit, where the Suboxone drug has been manufactured to help patients with opioid addiction or who suffer from chronic pain. However, it has been found that those who take the drug begin to suffer from severe tooth decay.

The Suboxone tooth decay lawsuit has been filed because the plaintiffs claimed that the manufacturers were aware of this side effect. The lawsuit also claims the manufacturers did not warn medical professionals or patients that this could happen.

If you have been prescribed Suboxone, the best thing to do is to contact the attorneys already dealing with the Suboxone lawsuit. You can request to be added to the existing lawsuit, which may give you the best chance of success.

If you have been a victim of a different drug, you should establish if there is a lawsuit already filed. If there is no currently active lawsuit, you can begin the process of filing against the pharmaceutical company.

Is Legal Advice Important?

When filing a pharmaceutical lawsuit, seeking legal advice is important as it is unlikely you will be able to represent yourself. Representing yourself will be difficult due to the amount of money the pharmaceutical company will be able to spend to defend itself.

Representing yourself will also be difficult if you do not have legal or medical training, as there will be a significant amount of paperwork to work through. Having a team of professionals to work through all of the paperwork and legal jargon is an important step if you want to win.

A further reason why you should seek legal advice is that an attorney will be able to tell you whether or not you have a case for the pharmaceutical company to answer. If you do not have enough evidence for the case to succeed, an attorney will tell you so you do not waste time and money only on losing the case.

Seeking legal advice will also enable an attorney to group together all lawsuits against the same company from multiple victims. A class action or mass tort lawsuit of several plaintiffs gives more weight to the lawsuit and more evidence for consideration by the court.

Without legal advice, you would be making a single-plaintiff lawsuit, which would be based on a much smaller amount of evidence. A lack of evidence will be much easier for the pharmaceutical company to argue against or dismiss as limited to you only rather than the product.

What is the Process

Once you contact the mass tort attorney who is dealing with the lawsuit for the particular drug that you have taken, there will be a series of steps to take before you can be officially added as a plaintiff to the lawsuit. Contacting the attorney who is already dealing with the lawsuit is the best first step.

The attorney currently involved in the lawsuit will be best suited to check if your side effects meet the criteria for the lawsuit. You will be initially interviewed to gather information about the symptoms you are experiencing and the situation you are in.

All legal obligations, such as the statute of limitations, the details of the drug and manufacturer, and the dates of the incidents, will be checked and verified. You will be asked to supply or provide access to your medical records to ensure that the information can be verified.

You should be prepared that everything you provide can be used as part of the lawsuit, and you may also be deposed or called to testify in court. If this is the case, your attorney will support you with information and advice regarding what will happen and what you can expect.

After the facts of the case have been taken and checked, you will then either be added to the lawsuit or, if you are one of the first victims, the lawsuit will be filed with the courts.

What is the Likely Outcome?

The outcome will vary depending on the strength of the case and what the attorney seeks to do at the outset of the lawsuit. The lawsuit can be immediately filed with either the state or federal court, depending on the circumstances.

Alternatively, your attorney may approach the pharmaceutical company for an out-of-court settlement. Some companies would prefer to settle out of court if they feel that there is enough evidence to go to court.

Out-of-court settlements may be of a different value than what you would receive in court. Either higher because there would not be the same amount of legal costs or lower because the settlement would be quicker. You may also be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Your attorney will advise you at each step on the best course of action to take, depending on their experience and the exact situation of your case. It is best to take the attorney’s advice, but this may not be your sole decision, especially in a mass tort lawsuit.

If the case goes to trial in a court, the decision-making will be taken out of your hands, and the outcome will then depend on the strength of evidence supplied to the court.