On October 25, 2021, parties in the Zantac MDL participated in a court conference via Zoom to present to Judge Robin L. Rosenberg of the Southern District of Florida a proposed joint plan for selection of bellwether cases in the Zantac litigation. Plaintiffs in the litigations all similarly allege that they developed cancer after taking the heartburn drug.
There are over 130,000 potential personal injury claimants. The plan proposes limiting the bellwether pool to only plaintiffs from Florida. The pool will be compromised of only personal injury plaintiffs who allege Zantac caused their cancer. The plan requires at least 75% of the Florida plaintiffs to certify their complaints within the MDL.
The plan has several deadlines and phases. In one phase, a Microsoft randomizer will be used to select plaintiffs into an initial pool. Following this phase, selected plaintiffs who wish to decline to participate or drop out must do so by a set deadline. A process is prescribed for dismissal with prejudice of such plaintiffs and for replacement cases. The plan targets the first trial beginning July 17th, 2023.
At the conference, plaintiffs were represented by Adam Pulaski of Pulaski Kherkher PLLC and Mikal C. Watts of Watts Guerra Law Firm.
Representative Counsels were present for Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Patheon Manufacturing Services, LLC.
The case is In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation, case number 9:20-md-02924, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Counsel Financial provides working capital credit lines exclusively for the plaintiffs' bar in all states except California, where credit lines are issued by California Attorney Lending. This article is for informational purposes only. Counsel Financial is a business and not a law firm engaged in the practice of law and, as such, cannot provide legal advise.
