When lawsuits involving harmful drugs and defective medical devices begin to emerge across the nation, often, these numerous lawsuits are merged under multidistrict litigation (MDL) in order to improve the efficiency of the legal process and to avoid tying up valuable court resources.
Today our knowledgeable Texas Taxotere lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC will give you a thorough, yet simple explanation of multidistrict litigation and how it can help you secure the compensation you need if you or a loved one have suffered from excessive tearing (epiphora) as a result of treatment with the chemotherapy drug, Taxotere.
How does multidistrict litigation work?
When numerous lawsuits have been filed by plaintiffs who’ve suffered a similar injury caused by the same defective drug or product, or act of corporate negligence, the various attorneys representing clients in these lawsuits may request that the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation create an MDL to centralize the lawsuits.
It is worth noting that even if lawsuits are consolidated in an MDL, you will still have your individual attorney.
How MDL comes into play is during the pretrial process. The court will bring together a group of lawyers from across the country to coordinate pretrial measures and help handle the litigation accordingly.
What to expect in MDL.
Once an MDL has been allowed, the process will move into the next step: the discovery phase. Throughout discovery, the company being sued may be required to hand over documents with essential information relevant to the case.
It is also important to mention that witnesses may be questioned under oath during depositions and this testimony can be used at trial to support or invalidate allegations in the lawsuit.
The attorneys representing clients in the MDL can also file pretrial motions with the judge when it comes to discovery issues and the adequacy of evidence during trial. The judge may hold hearings to dictate the extent of discovery and rule on any disputes that appear throughout the litigation process.
Resolving the cases.
After the discovery process is finished, the judge can pick out several of the individual lawsuits to go on as bellwether trials – essentially a “test run”– although the outcomes of the bellwether trials will vary from plaintiff to plaintiff. Bellwether trials give both sides the fair opportunity to predict how juries may decide on a lawsuit.
For example, if the defendants lose all or most of the bellwether trials, the company may want to access a global settlement to avoid continued liability (and payouts) in the lawsuits that are left.
If the defendant wins the bellwether trials, the company and their lawyers could choose not to establish a settlement. At any time throughout the MDL, the attorneys may try to negotiate a settlement for all the cases involved in the litigation.
If the settlement negotiations come out as unsuccessful by the conclusion of these trials, the cases are transferred back to the courts where they were originally filed to go forth as individual lawsuits. Your attorney will then make the executive decision to either withdraw your suit or go on to trial.
Trust in the dependable Taxotere lawsuit lawyers at Hotze Runkle PLLC.
If Taxotere or another chemotherapy drug has destroyed, reduced, or damaged your happiness and well-being, then you have the legal right to hold the pharmaceutical company accountable for your suffering.
The product liability lawyers of Hotze Runkle PLLC have successfully represented cancer patients who have faced permanent and irreversible tearing as a result of being treated with chemotherapy drugs.
Do not wait to contact Hotze Runkle PLLC at (877) 919-0830 if you or a loved one are suffering from excessive tearing after being treated with the chemotherapy drug, Taxotere.
Manufacturers owe it to consumers to ensure their products are safe by providing ample warnings when there is a risk of injury involved. This goes for every product, from medications to toys to automotive parts and supplies.
Unfortunately, companies sometimes fail to give out these warnings, neglecting the very consumers they were meant to treat. Such was the case when Sanofi-Aventis failed to properly inform their users about the excessive tearing that comes with their breast cancer chemotherapy treatment, Taxotere.
But there is hope. If you have suffered from chemotherapy tearing stemming from Taxotere treatment, you may be eligible to file a product liability claim with our experienced national Taxotere injury attorneys at Hotze Runkle PLLC. Today, we are going to share some pertinent information regarding Texas product liability laws and how they can affect your Taxotere lawsuit.
But First, Let’s Define Product Liability by Texas Law.
The State of Texas defines product liability as, “…any action against a manufacturer or seller for recovery of damages arising out of personal injury, death, or property damage allegedly caused by a defective product whether the action is based in strict tort liability, strict products liability, negligence, misrepresentation, breach of express or implied warranty, or any other theory or combination of theories.”
In a nutshell, this means that if you or someone you love is harmed or killed–or even incurred damage to real or personal property–by a defective product, you have the right to recover financial relief from the party responsible. In most cases, it deals with negligence on account of one particular party somewhere within the product’s chain.
By law, there are three ways that a defective product can be determined:
- There was a manufacturing defect in which the item was assembled incorrectly before sale.
- There was a design defect instead of an alternative design that would have been safer.
- There was a terrible marketing mistake, like a failure to warn a consumer about any potential risk.
In many product claims, a professional’s testimony from the medical or engineering fields can provide relevant evidence that can help your legal team prove the product was defective.
Product Liability and the Texas Statute of Limitations
Usually, a Texan injured by a defective product has two (2) years to file a product liability lawsuit in accordance with state product liability laws. Time for the lawsuit starts running either on the date when the victim suffered the injury.
The State of Texas does, however, have exemptions to the rule:
- The victim was a minor.
- The victim was mentally or physically impaired.
- The defendant (i.e. the party responsible for the injury) deliberately hid any involvement.
- The defendant’s negligence was unknown, even years after a wrongful death occurred.
In the case of Taxotere, users were not made aware of the dangerous side effects and the excessive tearing by Sanofi-Aventis, and a lot of these individuals have legitimate claims in the eyes of Texas law.
Who Can I Turn To For Help in My Taxotere Injury Claim?
The experienced Taxotere attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC have taken up cases for Taxotere injury victims in their march against the negligence committed by Sanofi-Aventis and their defective breast cancer chemotherapy.
Don’t let corporate fearmongering dissuade you from seeking legal action. Our Taxotere attorneys could set your case in motion, seeking the settlement you and countless others need to properly recover. It’s not too late to seek help.
Get the compensation you deserve for your chemotherapy tearing. Contact the national Taxotere attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC today at (877) 919-0830 to schedule your FREE legal consultation today.
If you or a loved one are suffering from an illness where a specific medication is required to help treat the condition, then you may want to look into the side effects that can come with the pharmaceutical product you are being prescribed. Unfortunately, while these drugs are intended to help you, there are plenty of instances when these medications can instead cause serious harm to both your health and quality of life.
When you consider the health issues associated with taking a defective drug, the medical care you must seek in order to treat any unexpected side effects and the accompanying bills, as well as the emotional and mental strain, the repercussions of taking a defective drug can be catastrophic.
If you or family member has suffered irreversible and permanent tearing as the result of being treated with the breast cancer chemotherapy drug, Taxotere, you may feel lost and uncertain – but there is hope.
With the outstanding legal support of Hotze Runkle PLLC, you have a great shot for justice. Our team of Houston Taxotere lawsuit attorneys and national litigators have the skills, diligence, and means to help you secure the compensation you need for your injuries caused by the defective drug – in this particular case – Taxotere.
How Texas Handles Defective Drug Lawsuits: The Laws That Govern Them
Pharmaceutical-based product liability lawsuits (also referred to as “bad drug lawsuits”) while not too different from personal injury cases, do have a few significant aspects that set them apart in Texas.
Depending on your specific circumstances, there are three means by which you will be able to file your claim:
- If the drug was not designed properly
- If something went wrong in the manufacturing process of the drug
- There was a failure to properly inform consumers of the drug’s side effects
To further explain these concepts, there is considered to be an error in the design of the drug if it is exceedingly dangerous even when being properly used. However, it is a rare case that these types of claims are filed because most dangerous drugs are generally not approved by the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
In other instances, a drug can be designed properly, but something may happen during the manufacturing process that makes the drug no longer safe to use. A common example of this would be a drug that gets contaminated by a harmful component in the process of being manufactured.
Failure to properly advertise is a reasonable claim to file since Texas adopted the learned intermediary doctrine, which means that in some cases, the manufacturer fails to meet their obligation to provide adequate warnings to consumers and the prescribing physicians.
Who Can Be Held Liable and Why?
The drug manufacturer, your doctor, your pharmacy, and even testing laboratories can be held liable. Here’s why:
- Drug manufacturers can be held responsible for defects in manufacturing, defects in design, or inadequate marketing.
- Your doctor may be held liable for your injuries if they gave you the wrong medication or failed to properly inform you of the side effects, while your pharmacy – or even the pharmacists – can be guilty of filling the wrong medication or providing an improper dosage.
- Drugs have to go through a set of tests before they can be approved, so if one of the testing laboratories made an error and allowed an unsafe drug into the market, the laboratories can be to blame for your injuries.
Don’t Wait to File Your Claim Against Taxotere – Act Now!
In the state of Texas, you have two (2) years to file a product liability claim or a defective drug claim. If you fail to meet that time limit, it is more likely that the Texas civil court system will deny your claim.
However, please be aware that the statute of limitations varies from state to state. Should you be unable to file your claim in Texas, you may have the opportunity to file in another state. Your lawyer should be able to provide you additional information regarding this.
Some injuries are more difficult to detect and may go unnoticed for years following the injury. For example, Taxotere users didn’t suffer excessive tearing after their first treatment but began to develop the issue after constant exposure.
It is crucial to seek out legal guidance as soon as you start to notice any pain or discomfort or signs of the product being defective. It is important that you start the process of filing a claim against the makers of Taxotere sooner rather than later.
You can receive more information and a FREE case review from our national Taxotere lawsuit attorneys of Hotze Runkle PLLC by calling our office today at (512) 476-7771.
You trust pharmaceutical manufacturers to help you recover from frightening conditions with the care and safety that you deserve. The unfortunate truth, however, lies in the fact that some are in it only to put profits over people. When that happens, you could be left fighting off life-threatening conditions like breast cancer and the negative side effects that these drugs cause.
Injuries caused by defective drugs can cause life-long damage and hardship, and for victims, it can be the start of a very overwhelming and confusing time. You deserve answers from the manufacturers of defective drugs, and our product liability attorneys aim to get them.
If you are injured due to a defective drug, namely the chemotherapy drug Taxotere, our Taxotere attorneys at Hotze Runkle PLLC can help you challenge drug manufacturers in order to receive the settlement you are owed. As an added benefit, a product liability claim can essentially punish manufacturers, causing them to pull defective drugs from the market, require the addition of new warning labels, and save others from certain harm.
Proving Defective Drug Cases
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest in the United States, but they are still subject to laws and regulations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Like other civil suits, you will need to prove you were injured, prove the drug you took was defective or wrongly prescribed, and then prove that it was this defect that caused your injury.
Below you will find an outline of what to do if you are injured because of a defective drug, as well as three common types of pharmaceutical liability cases.
1. Prove You Are Injured
The first step of this process is arguably the simplest. You will need to prove that you have been injured, not just that you could have been injured. For instance, if you are prescribed a drug incorrectly but notice before you take it, then you haven’t been injured, and your claim won’t stand.
A trip to the hospital can not only diagnose what side effects you are enduring because of the defective drug, but it can also document that you have received treatment for your injuries and paid a large expense for something that wasn’t your fault. Save these documents for your product liability attorney.
2. Prove the Drug Was Defective
The second–and far more complicated–step is to prove that the drug was defective, falsely advertised, or misprescribed. In product liability, you will namely see these three types of cases:
- Defective Manufacturing – Defective manufacturing can cause injuries to the public by providing a bad or impure form of the drug. This could mean that the drug was mislabeled or swapped with another medication. The FDA can punish manufacturers who haven’t kept their standards high enough to ensure patient safety, but there is a statute of limitations on this sort of claim. This means you should come forward as soon as possible after being injured.
- Dangerous Side Effects – Another cause of defective drug injuries is the concealment of dangerous side effects by the manufacturer. For example, in Taxotere claims, excessive tearing is a real symptom that users experience and were not told about. In other cases, this can include side effects that the manufacturer missed during testing. This sort of claim is particularly hard to prove, so the help of an experienced product liability attorney is vital.
- Improperly or Falsely Marketed – There are several different ways that the improper or false marketing of a drug can lead to injury. This could include improper or incomplete warning labels that lack the information needed to prevent injury.
It also includes injuries sustained due to “off-label” use recommended by a doctor or pharmacist. If your doctor has prescribed you the wrong drug, or prescribed you a drug improperly, you can sue them for malpractice. If you don’t read or follow the warnings and directions given to you by your pharmacist and doctor, however, you are unlikely to win a defective drug case.
You should always read over the list of warnings and instructions just in case, even if you discussed them with your doctor. Your pharmacist is required to ask if you need any new medications explained in order to cover their own liability, so you should be able to check the information and instructions with them. Taking a risk with your health just isn’t worth it.
3. Prove This Defect Caused Your Injury
The next step is to prove that it was the defective drug that caused your injury and not something else entirely. An experienced product liability attorney is absolutely crucial for this step, helping you attain expert testimony that shows your claim has merit. An expert testimony makes a vast difference in the outcome of your claim. Evidence brought forth from medical, engineering, or accident recreation specialists can help your attorney present stronger evidence to prove the defective drug caused your injury.
There are also different laws in place in each state that are meant to protect the public from defective drugs. Each case is different, which is why you need an attorney who will address your individual needs.
Excessive Tearing Caused by Taxotere? Trust Only One Law Firm To Represent Your Case!
You may be entitled to compensation meant to cover your pain and suffering, medical claims, lost wages, and reduced quality of life. While defective drug cases like those brought against the manufacturers of Taxotere are similar to other civil cases, it is important to find an attorney with the right experience.
Our team of national litigators at Hotze Runkle PLLC have the experience, determination, and ability to help you get the compensation you deserve if you have suffered excessive tearing as a result of being treated with Taxotere.