N.J. Yaz-Yasmin Injury Lawsuits May be Centralized as Mass Tort

A New Jersey state court judge has asked that all state lawsuits filed over injuries allegedly caused by taking the birth-control pills Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella be treated as a mass tort and assigned to one judge.

There are already 39 state lawsuits filed in New Jersey state courts for injuries associated with the popular brands of contraceptives, officials said. Some legal experts predict the total of suits filed in the state’s courts could one day top 1,000.

Assignment Judge Donald Volkert, Jr. has asked the state courts’ administrative office to centralize all Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella lawsuits into one county. More than a dozen of the pending cases are filed in Passaic County, where Volkert sits, according to a report on Law.com.

Drugs Linked to Deaths, Injuries

Yaz and Yasmin are similar contraceptives made by Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, which is based in New Jersey. The drugs use different doses of the same hormone, drospirenone, which has been linked to increased levels of potassium in the body. Ocella is the generic form of Yasmin made by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella have been linked to dozens of user deaths and injuries, including life-threatening heart attacks, strokes, blood clots including deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, gallbladder disease, and sudden death.

Mass Tort Handling Urged

The centralization move is designed to prevent overwhelming the New Jersey courts with hundreds of Yaz-related lawsuits and more efficiently litigate the cases, officials said. New Jersey’s Administrative Office of the Courts is considering Volkert’s proposal and is expected to rule sometime in early 2010.

If the mass tort designation is approved, all Yaz and Yasmin cases now pending in the state’s courts and any future cases filed would be assigned to one judge for coordinated handling.

Some of the lawsuits accuse Bayer of failing to properly test Yaz and Yasmin for potentially deadly side effects before marketing the drugs. Also, Bayer is accused of hiding known risks of the drugs compared to other birth-control pills.

Pennsylvania state courts already have moved to Yaz and Yasmin centralize complaints filed in that state in a Philadelphia courtroom, Law.com reports.

Federal Lawsuits Already Consolidated

Federal court officials have already acted to consolidate more than 100 complaints filed regarding Yaz and Yasmin injuries. In October, Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits were ordered centralized in the Southern District of Illinois for multidistrict litigation pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge David R. Herndon in East St. Louis.

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