Use our attorney directory of drug litigation attorneys involved in FDA litigation, pharmaceutical litigation and prescription drug lawsuits. You can search for personal injury attorneys focused on drug litigation by state, city, or zip code. The profiles have information on the attorney's membership and leadership in legal organizations related to drug or pharmaceutical litigation, speaking engagements at quality CLE seminars, and participation in specialty certification programs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the management of the safety and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices and the food supply. The FDA is the agency which approves the release of all prescription drugs and monitors their post release market performance to ensure efficacy and safety in the long run.
The FDA seeks to facilitate innovation in the formulation, manufacture and release of medications. The FDA has as its primary goal, to improve and advance the public’s health.
Despite rigorous guidelines for the development and release of prescription medications drugs do get placed in the stream of commerce and through increased usage and interaction with the population, issues can begin to manifest themselves in the health and well-being of those who take them. During the course of pre-release testing, interactions and adverse reactions are tested and monitored so if the drug is approved and release, proper warnings can be made.
Various drugs make it to market and soon after their release, adverse reactions cause illness and in some cases death. The cause can be an extreme adverse reaction, tainted or adulterated product or an unforeseen side effect. The law of drug litigation is state law and falls under the area known as Products Liability.
Generally a manufacturer of a product, by placing it in the stream of commerce, warrants that it is safe and fit for its intended use and purpose. It is not a defense to a claim for a drug death for the manufacturer to claim some immunity because of the FDA approval.
The FDA maintains an Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) data base which it uses to monitor adverse medication reactions resulting in almost any injury, including death. This early warning system can use data to spot trends in medication reactions and may result in FDA investigations, voluntary recalls or mandatory withdrawal of the defective or dangerous drug from the marketplace.
When a consumer suffers an injury from a prescription drug and seeks medical care and treatment, a report is required to be made to the FDA. The FDA may or may not take some action regarding the drug. This does not affect the possible products liability claim for personal injury damages in civil court. If you are injured by a prescription drug and suffer serious injury you have a claim which can be brought in state or federal court for damages.
Sometimes the claim is related to items such as a defective or dangerous birth control product taken by tens of thousands of women. Many of the women are in various stages of their injury and some may not have begun to suffer or note the onset of symptoms.
These cases are often referred to the federal Multi-district Litigation courts for suit or become class actions seeking a determination of liability and an award of damages for all class members. Sometimes an individual plaintiff pursues the manufacturer.
Much like a class actions or mass tort cases, these drug litigation claims complex and challenging. They are very expensive to litigate and are often handled by a large firm. Because of the possibility of many claims, this claim may be part of a class action or become an MDL claim in federal court. Firms who handles class actions, MDL cases and even individual pharmacological injury claims must have strong financial resources, strong staffing levels and significant clerical support.
Lawyers who specialize in representing parties in pharmaceutical injury claims are large firms, generally with a presence in multiple jurisdictions and states. The firms have lawyers who specialize in the science and medical aspects of the claims and other lawyers who specialize in procedural issues. The singular representation of a large dangerous drug case is too large a task for any single lawyer to do an effective job.
At Lawyer Legion we created our directory of personal injury lawyers to help the public find a qualified attorney in a variety of practice areas such as FDA litigation, pharmaceutical litigation and prescription drug lawsuits. Our attorney directory organizes attorneys according to the focus of their practice, their membership and leadership in organizations related to drug litigation, and other objective factors. Use our online attorney directory to find lawyers for drug litigation cases throughout the United States.
This article was last updated on Wednesday, June 10, 2015.
