It is a common belief that medicine should make you feel better and alleviate pain—not cause it. Sadly, many drugs cause significant and negative health impacts for the people who take them. If you are one of them, you may have a right to file suit against the drug manufacturer for the losses you suffered.
A Bedford County dangerous drugs lawyer could explain the grounds you might have to hold a pharmaceutical manufacturer accountable for your injuries. A proactive personal injury attorney could help compile evidence of the injury and the harm it caused to build a strong claim for monetary damages.
If a person suffers harm from a drug, the manufacturer is liable for the person’s injuries if a skilled Bedford County attorney could prove the manufacturer sold a defective product. A claimant establishes a product is defective by showing that its design or manufacture created an unreasonably dangerous product, or its label did not provide adequate warning of the potential side effects of the drug.
Many dangerous drug cases focus on whether the company provided an adequate label. The Food and Drug Administration must approve a drug label, and the label must state all the known side effects the drug presents.
Sometimes a drug’s severe side effects are not apparent until the drug has been in use for a significant time. In other cases, the attorneys for injured claimants discover that a company knew of a specific severe side effect but did not disclose it to the regulatory authorities. In either situation, an injured claimant could receive financial compensation, and if the company intentionally hid relevant safety information, a court might award additional punitive damages to an injured claimant.
Sometimes an injured person could join others in suing a drug manufacturer. These lawsuits—commonly called multi-district litigation (“MDL”), or mass torts—can be an efficient way to bring a claim when the same medication injured many people.
In a mass tort, courts consolidate multiple lawsuits and hear them together. The claimants present the evidence of the product defect once, instead of each claimant having to prove his or her case separately. If the jury finds the manufacturer liable, each claimant offers proof of the injury he or she suffered and the losses it caused. People who suffered more severe harm will receive a larger recovery than people who experienced less severe consequences.
Dozens of mass torts are heard in courts every year. A well-practiced dangerous drugs attorney could advise a claimant whether the medication that caused his or her injury is the subject of a mass tort claim in Bedford County.
According to 42 P.S. § 5524, a person who wishes to bring a lawsuit seeking monetary damages for personal injuries has two years from the date of injury to file a claim in Pennsylvania. However, if the person suffered significant side effects or health impacts from a dangerous drug, determining the date of injury could be complicated.
Many drugs do not produce significant negative health impacts immediately but could lead to diabetes, heart disease, or cancer later in life. A patient might not receive a diagnosis of a serious health impact until several years after he or she stopped taking the dangerous drug. In such cases, under the discovery rule, courts may allow a claimant to file a lawsuit up to two years after he or she learned, or reasonably should have learned, that the drug might have caused a diagnosis.
When a pharmaceutical company gets a case dismissed because the claimant filed late, it saves the cost of litigating the case and paying any eventual judgment. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies often argue that a claimant should have known about a diagnosis or its connection with the drug earlier than he or she did. A capable defective drugs lawyer in Bedford County could present evidence showing the claimant sought medical advice as soon as symptoms became apparent.
When a defective drug produces a severe negative impact on your health, the pharmaceutical company that profited from the drug should be responsible for the harm you suffered. The drug industry has a lot of power, and manufacturers often have teams of lawyers and experts defending them from these lawsuits.
A Bedford County dangerous drugs lawyer at Marcus & Mack is not afraid to stand up to the drug companies and will fight until you get receive an adequate settlement for your injuries. Call today to get an aggressive advocate on your side.
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