Published January 14, 2013 by PR Web
St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) January 14, 2013
Zoloft lawsuits have been consolidated into a Multi-District Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Judge Cynthia M. Rufe is presiding over the Zoloft MDL.
As to recent developments in the Zoloft MDL, on January 2, 2013, Judge Rufe sent forth Pretrial Order No. 16. Fundamentally, the Pretrial Order outlines how to deliver responses in the MDL. The court document imparts detailed information as to “the procedure for filing responses to all civil actions that are or become consolidated in MDL No. 2342”.*
The Pretrial Order goes on to supply information on how the defendants, Pfizer Inc., Greenstone LLC, and Pfizer International LLC, shall go about filing a Master Short-Form Answer. In essence, the Master-Short Form Answer and Affirmative Defense is the defendants’ response to the claims of the plaintiffs.
According to the Pretrial Order, the Defendants will only have the opportunity to file one Master Short-Form Answer, and in doing so can address any and all charges made against them in each of the cases consolidated in the Zoloft MDL. As the document will stand as their initial response to allegations, Pfizer and Greenstone can deny the plaintiffs’ allegations, and in so doing, they can lay out a defense.
If relying upon information supplied in a recent report, there are quite a number of Zoloft cases in the MDL, and therefore each of these cases will necessitate address in the defense’s response. A Florida attorney who sits on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC), Bryan F. Aylstock, recently submitted a report late last year regarding the status of the Zoloft MDL. The legal journal, The Madison-St. Clair Record, stated that according to information contained in Alystock’s report, there are over 250 cases that have been consolidated into the Zoloft MDL.*
Plaintiffs in the Zoloft MDL have filed lawsuits against Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft, claiming that the antidepressant drug, classified as a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI), causes birth defects in newborn children when taken by women during pregnancy.
In a separate Zoloft lawsuit being heard in the Wayne County Circuit Court in West Virginia, nineteen plaintiffs, who are the children of mothers who claimed to have taken Zoloft during pregnancy, filed their lawsuit alleging that exposure to Zoloft in the womb resulted in the development of their birth defects.
According to the legal journal, The West Virginia Record, the plaintiffs identified these Zoloft linked birth defects as heart defects, such as atrial septal defects and holes in the heart, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), skull and facial deformations, and a number of other congenital birth defects related to Zoloft exposure in utero.*
Lawyers at Carey Danis & Lowe are currently evaluating Zoloft cases, and they are offering legal consultations to those individuals who claim to have been harmed by the use of Zoloft during pregnancy. For more information about filing a Zoloft lawsuit, and specifically one related to Zoloft and birth defects, contact a lawyer at Carey Danis & Lowe by calling 800-721-2519.
