SILICONE BREAST IMPLANT LITIGATION
In 1992, responding to a flood of lawsuits alleging damages
resulting from the use of silicone breast implants, the Judicial
Panel for Multi-District Litigation (JPMDL) granted Multi-District
status to breast implant litigation and assigned the overall management
of the cases to Judge Sam Pointer in Birmingham, Alabama.
MDL 926 (as the litigation came to be known) became one of the
largest multi-district cases in the history of US mass-torts.
Two steering committees (one for the implant victims known as
the PSC and one for the manufacturers) were formulated with the
help of the Court in order to streamline the massive administrative
processes that such litigation would spawn.
The discovery phase of the case (in which the parties literally
discover facts and evidence to support their positions) resulted
in the production of many millions of pages of documents which
were all scanned by computer on to CD ROM disks for easy distribution
to attorneys around the country. Hundreds of multi-day depositions
were taken of the representatives of the companies that manufactured
the devices, with multiple sets of lawyers defending for the manufacturers,
and members of the PSC prosecuting the cases for the implant victims.
Hundreds of hearings were held in court and telephonically to
settle evidentiary, scheduling and other issues. Judge Pointer
set up a website that is still active so that attorneys and the
public can get information directly over the Internet.
One proposed class settlement (Lindsey I) was destroyed when
Dow Corning, a major supplier of silicone products and a direct
manufacturer of breast implants filed for bankruptcy protection
in May of 1995. A second proposed settlement (Lindsey II) involving
manufacturers other than Dow Corning survived, and resulted in
the resolution of the vast majority of US lawsuits. The Dow bankruptcy
is in the process of being resolved, with a confirmation hearing
for Dow's most recent proposed plan of reorganization currently
scheduled for June of 1999.
To help resolve the legal problem of disease causation, Judge
Pointer commissioned a neutral panel of experts to examine the
evidence related to silicone exposure from breast implants and
systemic disease. The Panel was to answer questions posed to it
by the Court, essentially: does the current scientific evidence
support the position that silicone exposure from breast implants
causes systemic disease? In the fall of 1998, the panel answered
the Court's query by generally saying no. The effect of this report
and the Panel's findings on the remaining cases is yet to be determined.
The panel experts are scheduled to give testimony on their findings
shortly.
Your Legal Rights
If you or someone you know has suffered serious side effects or an injury that you
believe may be related to silicone breast implants, you may be eligible to file a claim.
CLICK
HERE TO CONTACT THE PRODUCTS LIABILITY LAWYERS NOW FOR A FREE CASE
EVALUATION, OR CALL US AT 1-800-955-0815.
