Xarelto MDL Bellwether Trials to Begin

As ordered by MDL (Multi-District Litigation) Judge Eldon Fallon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and prepped for trial by the parties, four (4) Xarelto bellwether trials are scheduled to take place over the next few months. The first is set to begin on April 24th before Judge Fallon followed by a second in his court beginning May 30th. A third bellwether trial is scheduled to begin in June in U.S. District Court in Mississippi with the fourth scheduled for July in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The cases involve plaintiffs who suffered either gastrointestinal or cranial bleeds that are alleged to have been caused by Xarelto. Each case alleges that the manufacturers of Xarelto, Bayer and Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary), failed to adequately warn of the risk of such bleeding events.

MDL bellwether trials are intended to present to juries cases (fact patterns) that are generally representative of the cases that have been filed in the MDL. Commonly, the Judge overseeing the MDL litigation will set forth the parameters and process for selection of cases to consider for bellwether trials. Attorneys for the parties will then have an opportunity to propose representative cases - the MDL Judge will make the final selection.

The overarching purpose of the bellwether trial process is to inform the parties and the court of how juries perceive the relative strengths and weaknesses of the overall case against the manufacturer(s) of the product in question – in this case Xarelto. With that information, the MDL Judge may confer with the parties to discuss and suggest the direction and possible resolution of the overall litigation. Beyond that central purpose, bellwether trials also provide the parties with the opportunity to assess and sharpen their respective trial strategies and tactics.