Baum Hedlund's Drug Product Injury Litigation Experience

Senior Partner Ron Goldman talks to reporters about the FDA's ability to properly monitor the safety of drugs.

Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman has extensive experience in litigating personal injury, wrongful death and consumer class action cases against major drug companies for more than 20 years.  Our firm’s drug product liability litigation department has handled over 3,000 antidepressant product liability cases, and many other wrongful death and personal injury cases from many other types of drugs against defendants such as, Bayer Corp, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer, and Wyeth.

Our firm has been representing victims of defective drugs since the late 1980s. We started handling SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant cases in 1990 and we served on the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in the early 1990s in the first SSRI-suicide litigation involving Prozac (the first SSRI approved by the FDA for marketing in the U.S.).

Our drug litigation team is presently focusing on personal injury and wrongful death cases involving Avandia, Celexa, Digitek, Lexapro, Heparin, Paxil, Prozac, Symbyax, Trasylol, Vytorin, and Zoloft.

Baum Hedlund maintains the highest *AV® peer review legal rating and is recognized as a preeminent plaintiff firm that tries or settles serious personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits across the nation. Our firm has the longest track-record handling SSRI antidepressant litigation, having litigated thousands of antidepressant cases in the past 18 years.

While representing our clients, we dig deep into drug company files to discover the truth about what the company knew about the drug’s risks, when the company knew of those risks and what efforts, if any, the company took to hide those risks. Only through legal action can anyone gain access to this type of information.

Past efforts by Baum Hedlund and others have resulted in improvements in drug safety including the most recent FDA black box suicide warning issued on certain antidepressants. The firm’s efforts get innocent victims compensated when duties are neglected or willfully disregarded.

Baum Hedlund has been on the prevailing side of some of the nation's most highly-publicized cases. Such litigation involves complex evidence and choice of law issues which have been routinely handled by the firm in both state and federal courts. Many of their attorneys have delivered Continuing Legal Education accredited lectures and written articles on the many complex issues involved in pharmaceutical litigation. Baum Hedlund is accustomed to handling the simplest and most complex cases and is here to solve legal problems caused by negligent conduct.

For 18 years, Baum Hedlund has been handling SSRI-induced suicide/violence litigation involving Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and more recently PPHN and heart birth defect cases. Baum Hedlund was appointed Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee (MDL-1574) Paxil Products Liability Litigation and has been on the plaintiffs steering committees on a number of other pharmaceutical multi-district litigation cases. 

Baum Hedlund lawyers have successfully defeated arguments by drug-makers and the FDA that cases involving FDA-approved drugs should be federally preempted in a number of cases such as Knipe v. SmithKline Beecham d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, Tucker v. SmithKline Beecham, Corporation, Collins v. SmithKline Beecham Corporation, Case No. 00762 (Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, March 11, 2008), Steinberg v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. Case No. 1­04­CV­029096 (Santa Clara Sup. Ct., January 25, 2007), Witczak v. Pfizer, 377 F.Supp.2d 726 (D. Minn 2005); Zikis v. Pfizer, Inc., WL 1126909 (N.D. Ill. 2005); Cartwright v. Pfizer, Inc., 369 F.Supp.2d 876 (E.D. Tex. 2005); Miles v. Pfizer, Inc., Case No. 03­731­C (M.D. La. March 31, 2005) (order without opinion); Szybinski v. Pfizer, Inc., Case No. YC 047439 (Los Angeles Sup. Ct. July 12, 2005) (minute order striking FDA Amicus Briefs and denying preemption), and; Motus v. Pfizer, 137 F. Supp. 2d 1085 (C.D. Cal., 2000).

In addition to their court activities, Baum Hedlund attorneys are strong public health advocates.  They have fought and continue to fight for proper warnings on pharmaceutical drugs.  For instance, a Baum Hedlund attorney testified about the dangers of SSRI antidepressants on several occasions before the Food and Drug Administration’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee.  Baum Hedlund attorneys, staff and clients have met with FDA and Department of Health and Human Resources officials, as well as met with members of the U.S. House and Senate regarding the risk of antidepressant induced suicidality.

Our law firm assisted Congressional Investigators from two separate Committee investigations. Two Congressional hearings were later held at which pharmaceutical executives and FDA officials were interrogated about their failure to protect the public health related to antidepressants and their association with suicidality.

The FDA now requires a black box warning on all antidepressant labels alerting physicians and patients to the increased risk of suicidality. 

*AV® Rating Explanation: Martindale-Hubbell is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and the Judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell Ratings fall into two categories - legal ability and general ethical standards. "CV, BV and AV are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies." "An AV® rating reflects an attorney who has reached the heights of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity."