Depo-Provera Lawsuit Case Management Conferences Scheduled Throughout 2025

Judge presiding over all federal lawsuits over meningioma brain tumors caused by the birth control shot is moving forward with plans for a series of pilot test cases early in the litigation.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system has announced that a series of monthly case management conferences will be held throughout 2025, which will keep the parties on track for a series of early pilot trials designed to gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

The Depo-Provera birth control shot is a quarterly injection that has been on the market for more than three decades, and has been given to millions of women to help prevent pregnancy. 

However, women began filing lawsuits against the manufacturer last year, after studies detected a link between long term use of Depo-Provera and meningioma brain tumors, with researchers indicating that some women could face more than five times the risk of experiencing the side effect.

The number of claims filed since the release of the study has surged, with Pfizer and generic manufacturers now facing at least 130 product liability claims, each raising similar allegations that women and the medical community were not adequately warned about the risks associated with the injections. However, as more women learn about the cause of their injuries, it is widely expected that thousands of claims may ultimately be filed.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in the cases, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) established a Depo-Provera meningioma MDL in February, centralizing claims brought by women throughout the federal court system before U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Judge Rodgers is a veteran of large mass tort litigation and has moved quickly to push the lawsuits over Depo-Provera brain tumors toward trial, indicating that a small group of pilot cases will be prepared to go before a jury to help bring a prompt and efficient resolution to the litigation.

The Court issued a pretrial order (PDF) on April 3, indicating that it will hold a case management conference near the end of every month in 2025, starting with the next meeting set for May 30.

These conferences will be used to keep the Court up-to-date on the status of the litigation and iron out any problems that may delay progress in the litigation, as the number of claims continues to grow.

Depo-Provera Pilot Trials

Judge Rodgers has indicated she is intent on pushing the parties to make steady progress in the Depo-Provera litigation.

Typically in MDL proceedings, it can take months or even years for the parties to jointly agree on a group of representative claims for early trial dates. However, days after she was appointed to oversee the claims, Judge Rodgers independently selected five Depo-Provera pilot cases and directed lawyers to begin preparing for trial.

After general causation discovery and case-specific discovery is complete, the parties are expected to file a series of pretrial motions challenging the admissibility of certain evidence and testimony late next year, which the court will address before the first Depo-Provera lawsuits go before a jury, potentially by the end of 2026 or early 2027.

While the outcomes of these trials will not be binding on other Depo-Provera lawsuits, they will give the parties a chance to see how juries respond to arguments and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation, which may help the parties reach Depo-Provera settlement agreements.

To stay up to date with Depo-Provera lawsuit updates, subscribe to our newsletter.