Factor V Leiden – Do I Still Have a Viable Legal Claim?

We are often asked what is Factor V Leiden and if a diagnosis of this genetic disorder has been made, whether there is still a viable Yasmin/Yaz/Ocella legal claim.

Factor V Leiden thrombophilia is a common inherited genetic disorder in which there is an increased tendency to form abnormal blood clots (thrombophilia) in blood vessels. People who have the Factor V Leiden mutation are at a higher than average risk for a type of clot that forms in veins, such as the deep veins of the legs (deep venous thrombosis or “DVT”), or a clot that travels through the bloodstream and lodges in the lungs (pulmonary embolism or “PE”). Most people with the Factor V Leiden mutation never develop abnormal blood clots, however.

The lawsuits against Bayer allege that the drug company knew or should have known that its novel birth control pills, Yasmin, Yaz and Ocella, carry an increased risk of serious complications, including an increased risk of thromboembolic events as compared to alternative birth control pills. However, in putting the interest of corporate profits over public safety, Bayer’s marketing has focused almost exclusively on the positive affects of its newest drug creations, while continually omitting or minimizing the very significant and deadly increased clotting risks to women. This missing information about an increased risk of deadly side effects is essential information that women and their physicians deserve and have the right to know when considering which birth control is the best and safest option, especially women who already have an increased risk due to Factor V Leiden or other clotting disorders.

We believe that women with Factor V Leiden who have suffered injury after taking Yasmin, Yaz or Ocella, still have strong legal claims against Bayer for its lies to the public, patients and their physicians. For more information, you can call us toll free during regular hours at 888-841-9623 or by email to pamela@toledolaw.com or malina@toledolaw.com. Your can also visit our Yasmin/Yaz/Ocella website at http://www.toledolaw.com/yasmin.php and our You Tube Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rg5fwjeNZ4

The Fight Continues: Plaintiff Fact Sheets

What is a Plaintiff Fact Sheet (PFS)? Plaintiff Fact Sheets are basically questionnaires completed by Plaintiffs, with assistance from their counsel. These questionnaires take the place of interrogatories, or written questions, that are typically served in litigation.

In a mass tort case, like the Yaz litigation, the Parties negotiate the questions to be asked on the questionnaires. The Defendants are entitled to ask questions in a PFS that provide both basic information about the claimant (date of birth, marital status) and specific information (date of injury, type of injury, name of doctor).

On Friday of last week members of our Pennsylvania Plaintiffs litigation team presented argument to Judge Moss on the Plaintiff Fact Sheet, in an effort to minimize the level of intrusion into the private lives of women bringing claims for injury caused by Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella.

Even though the PFS is totally confidential, we still want to limit the degree of intrusion and the level of information to the minimum necessary to permit the Defendant to be apprised of the underlying facts.

The PFS being negotiated in Yaz will be finalized within the next few weeks. For many women completion of this questionnaire will be all that will be required of them in this litigation. The rest of the work will be done by the lawyers and paralegals, primarily the gathering of medical records, medical bills, and review of those records by the necessary experts.

The privacy of each women is critically important to us and we have and will continue to take every measure to preserve that privacy. We are indeed fortunate to have Judge Moss, a woman Judge, presiding over the Pennsylvania State Court proceedings. Once the negotiations and rulings on disputed matters are completed, we will start working with our clients to get these PFS completed fairly and accurately. We will have 75 days from the entry of the order, or the filing of the case, to get the PFS completed. Based on the questionnaire I am sure that all of our clients will have no problem answering the questionnaire. It will probably take less than an hour to complete, and much of the information will be found in the medical records.

So I wanted to get this information out there for those of you who may have questions about PFS. If you have not yet secured an attorney to assist you with your claim for stroke, pulmonary embolism, DVT, or gall bladder removal then I urge you to do so. In selecting an attorney you should be sure to find someone with experience and expertise in the field of mass torts and particulary with regard to Yaz.

Our firm was one of the early leaders in the litigation and continue to be deeply involved in the preparation and pursuit of these important cases. You can call us toll free during regular hours at 888-841-9623 or by email to pamela@toledolaw.com, malina@toledolaw.com, michelle@toledolaw.com, or david@toledolaw.com. Our team of attorneys and paralegals stands ready to support you in your fight for justice.

Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella Lawsuit Update

I apologize for not updating this Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella blog. In the past month we have been extraordinarily busy reviewing new cases and working with other Plaintiff lawyers doing the hard work necessary to prepare, pursue and present these cases at trial.

We have successfully served the German Bayer Defendants, Bayer AG and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, and filed those proofs of service with the Court. I believe we are the first firm in the country to have done so. While many believe it is not necessary to serve the Germans, doing so will insure that we have the right to all necessary documents, many of which are in Germany.

The Data Protection Directive (European Privacy Law) is a tool used by foreign corporations to protect their documents from discovery. While the law was designed to protect individuals from invasion of privacy, in this case Bayer is using it to avoid its responsibility to produce documents that could establish liability for the tens of thousands of injuries and deaths caused by Yaz. To get around the restrictions, it was critical that we get service on these foreign corporations.

Now that Bayer and Bayer Schering have been served in Germany, we can proceed to force the Defendants to give us the documents.

We continue to look at each individual case carefully before filing suit. Some cases are better filed in Philadelphia, some in New Jersey, and others in the MDL which is located in East St. Louis, Illinois. Complex rules on choice of law and the discovery rule must be analyzed for each fact pattern.

Based on the number of cases we are seeing, our initial estimate of 10,000 cases now seems conservative. It may well be that this case becomes one of the largest ever mass tort cases, with over 20,000 cases of women who have suffered injury from gall bladder loss, stroke, Pulmonary Embolism (PE), Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), or other blood clot disorder.

We strongly encourage all women and their families who have suffered this type of injury to immediately seek legal advice from an experienced attorney. You may call us toll free during business hours at 1-888-841-9623 or email us anytime at pamela@toledolaw.com, malina@toledolaw.com, or david@toledolaw.com.