New Jersey Courts seek Mass Tort Statuts for Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella Lawsuits

New Jersey Judge Donald Volkert, Jr. made an application to the New Jersey judiciary to designate the 39 cases against drug companies Bayer and Teva over the birth control pills, Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella as a mass tort.  The mass tort designation will allow the cases to be consolidated in one court in New Jersey, rather than in several jursidiction as is now the case.  Judge Volkert, Jr. cited the following reasons to consolidate these cases:

• large number of filings;
• geographic disbursement of parties;
• risk of redundancy and inconsistent filings by different judges, resulting in undue delay and expense;
• increased efficiency by having one judge oversee the issues
• common issues of law and fact, as found by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation; and 
• consolidation of the federal court cases by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation

According to Law.com, the chief of civil court programs also noted that consolidation of federal cases weighs in favor of a similar move for state litigation because judges hearing federal multidistrict cases tend to coordinate case management with state judges hearing similar cases.

Usually mass tort status requests are made by plaintiffs' counsel, but the rules permit judges to make requests as well.  Since mass tort applications from lawyers typically request a specific venue, plaintiffs lawyers will probably express their preferences in comments to the court.  However, the final venue decision will be decided based mainly on caseloads in various venues.  The three counties being considered are Atlantic, Bergen and Middlesex. 

Public comments on the application for mass tort status will be accepted until December 31, 2009 with a determination expected shortly thereafter.