Up to 100 Suboxone Tooth Decay Claims Can Be Filed on Single Lawsuit in MDL: Judge

Bulk filing order comes ahead of another surge in Suboxone lawsuits expected  this summer, as the three year anniversary of tooth decay warnings creates a potential deadline in several states.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Suboxone lawsuits has issued an order allowing up to 100 plaintiffs with tooth decay claims to be combined on a single complaint, to help expedite the processing of new cases and defer filing fees.

The order comes as manufacturers of the opioid addiction treatment already face more than 10,000 Suboxone tooth decay claims being pursued in the federal court system, with each case raising similar allegations that users were left with devastating dental damage from Suboxone film strips, which were introduced in 2010 and have been found to degrade tooth enamel, resulting in lost or broken teeth, as well as the need for substantial dental work.

The litigation emerged after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required new Suboxone tooth decay warnings be added to the drug label label in June 2022, with plaintiffs maintaining that they could have avoided devastating dental injuries if the manufacturers had provided early information about risks associated with the treatment.

As the three year anniversary of this label change approaches, Suboxone injury attorneys expect a surge in new lawsuits, since the drug makers have argued that the warning update triggered the running of the statute of limitations deadline in some states.

Last year, all Suboxone tooth decay lawsuits were centralized as part of a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) under U.S. District Judge Philip Calabrese, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings in the Northern District of Ohio.

Shortly after the Suboxone MDL was established, a potential deadline for individuals living in states with a two-year statute of limitations led to an influx of new claims that needed to be filed in June 2024. To prevent the court from being overwhelmed, Judge Calabrese allowed the filing of one bundled Suboxone lawsuit, known as the Schedule A cases, which included about 9,600 individuals who were still gathering documentation to support their claims.

Joint Suboxone Lawsuit Filings Approved

Some states have a three-year statute of limitations, and the drug makers have indicated they intend to argue claims from certain states that are not filed in advance of this anniversary should be dismissed. As a result, another surge in filings is expected over the next few months. 

In a case management order (PDF) issued on March 14, Judge Calabrese indicated that the Court will accept Suboxone lawsuits filed with up to 100 plaintiffs listed on a single complaint.

Despite including up to 100 different tooth decay claims in a single filing, these joined complaints will only require a single filing fee at the time they are brought.

“In an effort to minimize the expenses of all parties, and to promote judicial efficiency, the Court authorizes claims of more than one plaintiff, and up to 100 plaintiffs, to be filed in a single complaint with one filing fee for the Lead Plaintiff at the time of filing,” Judge Calabrese wrote. “The Joinder Plaintiffs’ (plaintiffs named in the Joint Complaint other than the Lead Plaintiff) responsibility for a filing fee will be suspended until the dismissal or resolution of their respective claims, at which time the fee must be paid before the case can be dismissed and closed, unless otherwise ordered by the Court.”

Each joint complaint will be required to include a section on plaintiff-specific allegations, listing information about each of the Suboxone tooth decay claims, including each plaintiff’s injuries, home state and their originating venue.

The order came after the parties met in person for a status conference on March 11, at which time Judge Calabrese addressed a number of discovery disputes that have arisen between the parties, according to a minutes order (PDF) issued on March 13. 

That conference also resulted in another case management order (PDF), in which Judge Calabrese called for the selection of  500 random plaintiffs, for the purpose of creating a Record Collection Pool for certain medical records, involving 100 individually filed claims and 400 chosen from the Schedule A plaintiffs.

Suboxone Lawsuit Bellwether Trials

To promote potential Suboxone tooth decay settlements or another resolution for the litigation, Judge Calabrese has called on the parties to help identify a small group of Suboxone dental injury claims that are representative of the litigation as a whole, to serve as bellwether test cases for early jury trials.

These bellwether trials will provide the parties with an opportunity to see how juries are likely to respond to evidence and testimony that would be repeated throughout the litigation.

While the outcome of these early bellwether trial dates in the MDL will not have any binding impact on remaining claims, the average payouts awarded by juries may have a significant impact on future Suboxone tooth decay settlements the drug maker may offer to avoid the need for each individual lawsuit to go before a jury in the future.