Suboxone MDL Judge Appoints Attorneys to Leadership Development Committee

Lawyers will take actions during the pretrial proceedings that benefit all plaintiffs pursuing tooth decay lawsuits against Suboxone manufacturers, while being mentored by more experienced lawyers in the litigation.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Suboxone tooth decay lawsuits has appointed a group of attorneys to serve on a Leadership Development Committee, which aims to use a recently established federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) to mentor and coach younger, less experienced plaintiffs’ lawyers.

The consolidated pretrial proceedings involve product liability claims being pursued by more than 10,000 former users of Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) sublingual film, which has been marketed by Indivior as a safe and effective treatment for individuals dealing with addictions to opioid-based pain killers. However, the manufacturer now faces claims that it withheld information about the risk that Suboxone film may cause teeth to decay, break and fall out of the mouth.

Although the drug was first approved in a dissolvable tablet form in 2002, Indivior introduced a sublingual film version of the drug about ten years later, which is placed under the tongue or inside the cheek. However, it was not until June 17, 2022 that the FDA added Suboxone tooth decay warnings to the medication, following hundreds of complaints involving tooth loss.

Plaintiffs maintain that they may have avoided permanent dental damage from Suboxone if they had been warned about the risk and instructed on certain steps that could be taken to avoid enamel erosion and tooth loss while using Suboxone film.

Given common questions of fact and law presented in lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) established a Suboxone lawsuit MDL in February 2024, transferring claims to U.S. District Judge Philip Calabrese in the Northern District of Ohio, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Suboxone Leadership Development Committee Established

One of the first steps Judge Calabrese took was appointing Suboxone dental injury lawyers to serve in leadership positions, identifying a group of 20 experienced attorneys to take certain actions during the MDL proceedings that benefit all plaintiffs pursuing a claim.

Last month Judge Calabrese issued a court order establishing a Suboxone Leadership Development Committee (LDC), in an effort to give some younger or less experienced attorneys a chance to be mentored in the MDL.

On August 8, Judge Calabrese issued a case management order (PDF) appointing seven attorneys to the Leadership Development Committee. The Court looked at applicants’ backgrounds, education, experience, their ability to work well with others, and their personal interest and understanding of the litigation.

Under the program, members of the LDC will have to complete projects assigned by co-lead counsel or the appointed Chair of the LDC in a timely manner. This could include reviewing documents and evidence establishing when Indivior knew about the Suboxone film tooth decay risks, conducting discovery depositions of witnesses and potentially arguing certain motions before the court.

“The Committee is intended to provide mentorship to attorneys committed to long-term involvement in mass-tort MDL practice with the goal of developing future MDL leaders,” he wrote. “Through these appointments, the Court intends that less-experienced attorneys will work with and learn from the established leaders the Court has appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Leadership Committee.”

August 2024 Suboxone Lawsuit Update

As part of the coordinated management of the litigation, it is expected that Judge Calabrese will establish a “bellwether” process where a small group of representative claims will soon be selected to go through case-specific discovery and be prepared for a series of early test trials, which will help gauge how juries may respond to evidence and testimony that will be repeated in hundreds of claims.

Last month, Judge Calabrese called for the parties to separately submit proposals to the court by August 27, regarding the specific information about each Suboxone dental claim that they believe will help identify cases that are a “representative sample” of others pending in the MDL, and “drive resolution” of the litigation.

While the outcome of any early bellwether discovery or trial dates will not have any binding impact on remaining claims, the average Suboxone tooth decay lawsuit payout may impact the amount of money the drug maker will be required to pay to avoid the need for each individual lawsuit to go before a jury in the future.