The federal judge overseeing the ongoing testosterone replacement therapy medication lawsuits has issued initial orders regarding the discovery phase of these claims. The claims have been centralized into one large low-T lawsuit, which is known in the legal world as a multi-district litigation, or MDL. Currently, more than 200 individual testosterone medication lawsuits have been merged into this MDL because all of the plaintiffs claim to have suffered heart attacks, strokes or related problems because of the medication.
The judge’s recent orders basically lay out how information between the plaintiffs and the defendants will be exchanged, when it should be exchanged and what should and should not necessarily be disclosed. These orders were made in hopes of moving the entire matter forward as efficiently as possible.
The Case Management Order
On August 25, the judge issued what is known as a Case Management Order. This order clarifies the discovery procedure that’s to take place. The order stated every defendant has 45 days to provide initial disclosures of information. This information includes:
- A list of people with the most knowledge regarding the development and marketing of these drugs
- Information regarding where the documents relating to these medications are located
- Names of the people or entities currently in control of these relevant documents
There is a status conference scheduled for September in which at least some of this information is expected to have been made available.
The Protective Order
More recently, the judge issued what is known as a Protective Order. This orders has been provided in order to clarify what can be done with the information that’s exchanged as part of this low-testosterone lawsuit. Specifically, the order defines which parties can review information that is marked as “Confidential” and therefore protected. These parties include:
- Attorneys of record representing clients in the low-T MDL
- Court officials involved in the litigation
- Certain witnesses who will testify in depositions
- Expert witnesses who have signed a Confidentiality Agreement
- Certain third-party document vendors
- Other people deemed to be allowed to see the documents based on the court’s discretion
- Certain employees of the defendants
Discovery is an often complicated process, especially when it relates to an MDL in which there are multiple plaintiffs and multiple defendants. These orders are issued in order to prevent possible controversies from arising in the future that could potentially slow the entire matter down to a halt.
About the Low Testosterone MDL
As stated above, more than 200 individual low-T lawsuits have been consolidated into this single MDL in Illinois. Manufacturers of drugs such as AndroGel, Testim, Axiron, Androderm or Depo-Testosterone are all involved in this matter. Many legal professionals believe that more plaintiffs could join the MDL as it’s possible that thousands of men or perhaps even more have been harmed or will be harmed by the use of these low testosterone medications.
If you or someone you love has been harmed as a result of using any of these products, you need to seek the help of the low-T lawyers at Parilman & Associates today to schedule a free initial consultation. You can either email the firm or call 800-800-DRUG.
