Is My Defective Drug Case Part of A Class Action Lawsuit?

You are taking a drug and you have suffered an injury.

You do your research and you see that other people have been injured by the same drug.

You want to call a lawyer to find out if you have any legal rights.

You want to know if you can bring a lawsuit and if your case will be part of a class action?

These are questions that people ask all of the time. An experienced Defective Drug Lawyer can provide you with answers to these questions and others you may have.

What is a Class Action?

A class actions is a very specific type of legal proceeding under the law. In a class action lawsuit, one or a handful of individuals file a single lawsuit on behalf of a very large group of individuals who have been injured in the same way and have the same claim.

Class action lawsuits typically involve economic losses, but where the damages are too low to warrant each case being brought individually.

For instance, in the event that your utility company is suspected of having overcharged all of the consumers in particular region a couple dollars every month for a particular calendar year, the case would probably be litigated as a class action.This is because each individual claim would be too small to file as a single case.

If the case is successful, each consumer who was overcharged by your utility company will receive the same amount in damages as compensation for being overcharged.

Multi-jurisdictional Litigation

What often happens in many injury cases, such as the one you may be contemplating, is that a large number of people will file individual claims for their own injuries and those lawsuits will be coordinated with other similar lawsuits to save time, money and judicial resources.

For example, in the federal court system, there is a proceeding called a multi-district litigation (MDL). These are proceeding in which lawsuits that are filed in federal courts across the country are all brought to one federal district judge––in one court and in one jurisdiction––and are litigated together in one single proceeding for the purpose of saving time and money, sharing evidence, and conserving judicial resources.

However, at the end of the day, each of these individual cases being litigated as part of the MDL will rise or fall on its own merits.

In some state courts, there also these types of coordinated proceedings. These proceeding may be referred to by names such as multi-jurisdictional, multi-county, or coordinated proceedings. But, regardless of what they are called, they all serve the same purpose––to save time, money and judicial resources and give litigants the opportunity to work together for more effective and efficient resolution of their cases, while keeping their cases individual so that they are treated fairly.

Contact an Experienced Defective Drug Lawyer

If you have been injured by a defective drug and want to find out if your case qualifies to be part a class action lawsuit, you should contact an experienced defective drug lawyer for an evaluation of the circumstance of your case.

Regardless, of whether your case is part of a class action or not, you may be entitled to substantial compensation from the drug’s manufacturer. Strict time limits apply to filing any personal injury case, so don’t delay. Contact us today.