Depo-Provera Lawsuit Pre-Settlement Funding and Loans Must Be Disclosed Under Court Order

MDL Judge expressed concern that predatory plaintiff loans may force women to reject Depo-Provera settlement offers, due to the high interest rates.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all Depo-Provera brain tumor lawsuits is requiring plaintiffs to disclose any third-party loans or pre-settlement funding advances taken against a potential recovery in their claim, in an attempt to protect women from predatory lenders.

Depo-Provera is a birth control injection that has been on the market for 30 years, involving quarterly shots administered by a healthcare provider. Given the convenience of avoiding the need for a daily birth control pill and the belief that they were safe, millions of women have been given Depo-Provera, with many of them receiving the shots for more than a decade.

However, the manufacturer now faces more than 400 product liability lawsuits after a series of studies were published last year linking Depo-Provera to meningiomas, with some findings indicating that women may be up to five times more likely to develop the brain tumors after receiving the birth control shots.

Each of the complaints raise similar allegations that the manufacturers knew or should have known about the potential Depo-Provera side effects, yet failed to adequately warn users and the medical community.

As more women learn that their brain tumor may be caused by Depo-Provera, the size and scope of the litigation is expected to rapidly increase, with some expecting that several thousand lawsuits may ultimately be filed.

To help manage the rapidly growing litigation, all federal claims involving the birth control injections have been consolidated in the Northern District of Florida under U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers, who is presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings in a Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation (MDL).

Last week, Judge Rodgers issued a pretrial order (PDF), demanding that the Court be kept aware of any plaintiffs who take out third-party loans based on the likelihood of a Depo-Provera settlement agreement.

These loans, also known as pre-settlement funding, are often aggressively marketed by third-party lenders, offering to provide immediate advances based on potential future injury settlements that have not yet been reached, and are not guaranteed to occur. However, Judge Rodgers pointed out that these types of loans are often designed to take advantage of plaintiffs, putting in place extremely high interest rates.

Judge Rodgers noted that, in addition to the extra expenses for plaintiffs, women who take Depo-Provera pre-settlement funding may be pressured by circumstances to not accept a reasonable offer to resolve their claim, because they have to pay back the expensive loans.

“It is important that the Plaintiffs in this MDL are not exploited by predatory lending practices, such as interest rates well above market rates, which can interfere with their ability to objectively evaluate the fairness of their options in the litigation… In this MDL, the Court finds it necessary and appropriate to require Counsel and pro se Plaintiffs to disclose all third-party litigation funding agreements entered into by any Depo-Provera Plaintiff.”

-Judge M. Casey Rodgers, Pretrial Order No. 25

She ordered plaintiffs’ attorneys to report any such deals they know about, including the plaintiff’s name, as well as the name, address and telephone number of the lender, and the dates on which all loans were made, the total amount of funds received by the plaintiff, the fees and interest rates on the loan and any other important terms of the loan agreement.

Several days later, on July 7, the parties issued a joint update (PDF) ahead of a case management conference scheduled for Friday. The update notes that, in addition to about 435 claims pending before Judge Rodgers, there are another 68 similar Depo-Provera meningioma lawsuits filed in state courts, including 58 in New York, seven in California, and one each in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Delaware state courts as well.

The parties also indicate in the report that 163 plaintiffs have submitted proper proof of Depo-Provera use and meningioma diagnosis, using injury questionnaires required by the court earlier this year.

July 2025 Depo-Provera Lawsuit Update

Immediately after Judge Rodgers was appointed to oversee all federal Depo-Provera lawsuits, she made it clear that the Court was intent on pushing the parties toward a quick and efficient resolution for the litigation.

Early in the MDL proceedings she announced the selection of five pilot Depo-Provera lawsuits that are currently going through case-specific discovery and preparations for a series of early jury trials, which are meant to help the parties gauge how the Court and juries will respond to testimony and evidence likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

No trial dates have yet been set. However, with the Depo-Provera lawsuit timeline the Judge has laid out, the first trials may get underway by late 2026 or early 2027.

Although 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.

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