500 Ortho-Evra Birth Control Patch Victims Sue Johnson & Johnson

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 2 of 7 page(s)

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He and other doctors said that the discovery by the Post was the first they had ever heard of multiple deaths linked to the Ortho patch.

Critics also point out that these records do not accurately portray the number of women injured by the patch because according to the FDA, at best, only 10% of all adverse events get reported to the agency.

In attempt to manage the mounting number of lawsuits filed in federal courts, on March 1, 2006, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued a transfer order to consolidated the pre-trial proceedings of 13 federal lawsuits filed by plaintiffs in different states, along with 54 potentially related actions pending in multiple federal districts.

The Panel assigned the cases to US District Judge, David Katz, of the Northern District of Ohio, in part, because he was already handling the first federal Ortho patch related lawsuit.

That move seemed to push J&J toward settling even more cases out-of-court. On May 2, 2006, at the very first status conference in the Ohio court, Johnson & Johnson attorney, Robert Tucker, informed Judge Katz that the company was prepared to settle cases with plaintiffs who were hospitalized for heart attacks, stroke, pulmonary embolisms or deep vein thrombosis, according Charles Toutant, in the May 16, 2006 New Jersey Law Journal.

Attorney, Ellen Relkin, a member of the plaintiffs' executive committee for the federal case, told the Journal "many of these cases are seven figures, many are probably substantial six-figure cases."

"It's not like a Vioxx, where you have clients in their 50s, 60s, 70s," said attorney, David Eisenbrouch, who represents plaintiffs. "You're dealing with primarily very young women, and J&J would rather cut its losses," he told the Journal.

Also on May 2, 2006, in a coordinated blitz, another Johnson & Johnson attorney, Susan Sharko, sent a letter to New Jersey Judge, Peter Bariso, to inform him that she had reached confidential settlements with 11 of the 12 plaintiffs involved in litigation in New Jersey.

An important point to keep in mind according to legal experts, is that as J&J quietly settles all these cases out-of-court with little or no fanfare, by design, the time limits for filing a lawsuit are slowly but surely ticking away for many persons who may have no idea that the Ortho Evra patch is the cause of an injury or death.

The applicable statute of limitation vary from state to state and in some states a personal injury claim might need to be filed within 3 years from the date an injury is diagnosed, while a wrongful death claim might need to be filed within 2 years from the date of a death. In some states, experts say, the time may be as short as 1 year from the date of diagnosis or death.

On May 13, 2006, the LA Times did get around to reporting that J&J had entered into confidential settlement agreements with about 30 women, quoting a plaintiff's attorney, Ray Chester, who negotiated the agreements in cases filed in state courts in New Jersey, Texas and California, and federal courts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

"Johnson & Johnson is going to lose most of these cases," Mr Chester said in the Times. "The cost to defend them and the public relations hit they would take if they tried the cases," he stated, "has tilted them toward settling."

"It is abundantly clear," Mr Chester added, "that the patch causes more clots than the pill."

Its all good and well that the Times published this story but the reporting is old news, because according to Mr Chester, J&J began settling these cases back in January which means the company was somehow able to conceal the fact that it was in essence admitting guilt in 30 cases, for about 5 months.

One case that was settled with a confidentiality agreement involved the first fatality attributed to the patch in the media which occurred on April 2, 2004, when 18-year-old Zakiya Kennedy collapsed in New York City while waiting for the subway.

The people who did catch the story about this 18-year-old dying so suddenly the few times it appeared were not surprisingly shocked. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was a blood clot called a pulmonary embolism that had moved to the lung as a direct result of using the Ortho Evra patch, the coroner ruled.

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Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

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