Yaz Side Effects Continue to Cause Legal Problems

Thousands of women have experienced some of the severe side effects of drospirenone-based birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin and have filed lawsuits seeking compensation for their injury at the hands of the supposedly safe fourth-generation pill. Out of around 3,700 lawsuits, 43 percent are related to gallbladder injury, 41 percent are related to thromboembolism, which includes pulmonary embolism, and 10 percent are perhaps the most serious of all – lawsuits related to claims of stroke and heart attack.
These statistics, while subject to change as more news on the state of Yaz lawsuits is reported, are a fairly accurate reflection of the side effects women have been experiencing as a result of this birth control drug – and a good reason for the lawsuits surrounding it. Yaz lawsuits have been consolidated into multidistrict litigation, a process that consolidates similar cases into one court, then completes the pretrial process – in this case, the presiding judge for this will be David Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois – and sends the cases back to the courts from which they originated.

Bellwether trials to commence

Bellwether trials, or preliminary trials, are set to begin as early as this year, with the first one – dealing with pulmonary embolism – scheduled for September 12, 2011. These trials will help lawyers and plaintiffs estimate what the trial process will look like for them and what kind of settlement they might expect based on the results of these trials. Three bellwether trials will take place altogether – besides the one this year, a Yaz gallbladder disease trial will take place on January 9th of next year, and a thromboembolism case is set for April 2nd, 2012.
Although the pretrial process is already underway, it may not be too late for potential plaintiffs to come forward – people who think they may have a case should consult an experienced trial lawyer, who can advise them from there.