Settlement News Before Abilify Bellwether Trials Begin

Settlement News Before Abilify Bellwether Trials Begin

Introduction

Come June, the first set of Abilify bellwether trials will begin. Judge M. Casey Rodgers presiding over the centralized Abilify litigation is pushing for the parties involved in the first three cases to settle the dispute before the trials begin. The judge has appointed Settlement Master Cathy Yanni to take this settlement matter further and ordered the parties’ legal representatives to meet as per the order released on April 25.

The first trial is scheduled to begin on June 18, followed by the second trial on August 6, and the third trial on August 27 to be convened at the federal court in Pensacola.

The Abilify lawsuits were centralized in October 2016 as a part of MDL No. 2734 (In Re: Abilify Compulsive Behavior Products Liability Litigation) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, where more than 800 product liability lawsuits are pending against the defendant drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.