Fungal Meningitis Attorney Update – Bankruptcy and MDL
Derek Merman of the The Merman Law Firm is poised to be named a trustee in the fungal meningitis bankruptcy. The fungal meningitis attorney at the Merman Law Firm already represents several victims of the fungal meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated steroid injections manufactured by the New England Compounding Center. Now the company has filed for bankruptcy and our fungal meningitis attorney is likely to be named a trustee in that action. Check back regularly for updates from our fungal meningitis attorney and, if you or someone you know has been affected by fungal meningitis from contaminated steroids, call the fungal meningitis attorney at the Merman Law Firm immediately.
Fungal Meningitis Bankruptcy
New England Compounding Center (NECC), the target of numerous lawsuits from the fungal meningitis outbreak, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 21, 2012. This bankruptcy filing will likely put a hold on lawsuits filed against the company until the financial details of the reorganization are worked out.
The bankruptcy filing does not come as a surprise. NECC shut down its facility and surrendered its pharmacy license shortly after the outbreak began in October 2012. The company is now facing dozens of class action lawsuits and hundreds of individual lawsuits, and there has been concern that NECC may not have enough assets to cover the claims. Through the Chapter 11 reorganization, the company claims its goal is to create a substantial fund to help compensate those affected by the outbreak. The fungal meningitis attorney will keep a close eye on this bankruptcy to make sure that is the truth
Fungal Meningitis MDL
To help streamline litigation in federal courts, attorneys on both sides are asking to have the lawsuits consolidated before one judge for pretrial and discovery matters. This process is called multi-district litigation (MDL). On January 31, 2013, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) will hear oral arguments on whether the lawsuits over the fungal meningitis outbreak filed in federal court should be consolidated. Consolidating the lawsuits is designed to help avoid conflicting rulings among different judges and to minimize duplicative discovery.
Fungal Meningitis Update
The number of infections continues to rise since the initial outbreak in October. The most recent update posted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms at least 664 cases of fungal meningitis or infection among individuals who received medications compounded by NECC, including 40 deaths.
