Protective Order Issued by Court in Birth Control Ring Lawsuits

U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sipple, who is handling the federal birth control ring lawsuits involving the NuvaRing, has issued a Stipulated Protective Order, which will restrict disclosure of information obtained by the parties during pre-trial litigation.

All federal lawsuits filed by women who allege heart attacks, strokes and blood clot-related injuries as a result of the NuvaRing birth control have been consolidated and centralized before Judge Sipple in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, as part of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

The consolidation of cases in an MDL is common in complex product liability cases involving claims for side effects of pharmaceutical products. The cases are handled together during the pre-trial proceedings to avoid duplicate discovery and contradictory rulings in cases spread throughout the United States. If the cases do not settle during pretrial proceedings, they are then sent back to the original court where they were filed for trial.

Earlier this week, both the lawyers representing the manufacturer of NuvaRing and the lawyers for women who were injured, notified the court that they agreed to the entry of a protective order for all MDL cases similar to an order issued before the consolidation in one of the first NuvaRing lawsuits filed.

 
A protective order, which is binding on all parties and their counsel, restricts the disclosure of documents and is designed to ensures the complete confidentiality of information produced during discovery. However, it does not have any impact on the admissibility of the evidence at trial.
 
According to the Stipulated Protective Order signed on October 15, 2008, any documents with confidential information will be filed with the court in a sealed envelope marked with identifying information about the case and an indication about its contents. The information will only be accessible to the parties, except by order of the court.
 
NuvaRing is the trade-name for a once-a-month, hormonal, combined-contraceptive vaginal ring which is used to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The birth control ring is manufactured by Organon Pharmaceuticals and received FDA approval in October 2001.

The birth control ring lawsuits allege that NuvaRing increases the risk of blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, heart attacks, strokes and death.

The NuvaRing MDL was recently formed on August 22, 2008, by order of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The first case conference was held before Judge Sipple on October 2, 2008, and the Court and parties are still in the early stage of setting up the management of the litigation.

No scheduling order has been issued, but it typically takes over two years before the first cases are ready for trial in this type of pharmaceutical litigation.