For a confidential, no-obligation consultation with our dangerous drug lawyers, use the contact form to the right, email me at msk@thlawyer.com, or call my office toll-free at 844-459-8719. We are currently handling a wide variety of drug lawsuits and medical device claims, including:


Prescription medication lawsuit list:

Defective medical device lawsuit list:



I take a special pride advocating for patients and consumers injured by corporate negligence and greed. My firm and I have not shied away from suing multinational banks, mercenary contractors, insurance companies, national media companies and other powerful corporations to ensure their victims are fairly compensated. As a result of our work, I’m often invited to debate these issues, including on Capitol Hill to Congressional staffers about the role the FDA plays in dangerous drug lawsuits. You can watch the video here. I’ve also been appointed by courts to represent the plaintiffs’ side in nationwide drug litigation, and I’m often sought by the media to discuss these issues, such as this article in Forbes from June 2016. I’m also recognized by Best Lawyers for my work in “mass torts,” the legal term for cases involving many people injured by the same drug. You can read more of my advocacy on my media mentions page.


We bring the same passion to our representation of patients and consumers injured by dangerous drugs that were negligently designed, inadequately tested, improperly manufactured, or which failed to warn consumers of their true risks. The over-the-counter medication and prescription drug industries earn billions of dollars in profits every year. When the users of their products are hurt by unexpected adverse reactions or by side effects concealed by the drug manufacturers, those companies set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for lawyers, law firms, physician witnesses, and other litigation experts to avoid taking any responsibility for the harm they cause.


Holding drug manufacturers legally accountable is hard work. The Food and Drug Administration is not the same friend of patients, consumers, and safe medicine that it used to be. FDA approval does not necessarily mean that a drug has been adequately tested or that the drug is safe for consumers — it often only means that company-funded studies have shown the drug works better than nothing. FDA approval is more about marketing to doctors and to the general public than about patient safety.


As much as we welcome the FDA taking an active role in policing drug manufacturers, too often the FDA is forced to rush approval of new medications by laws written by pharmaceutical lobbyists such as the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. Sometimes, a drug is approved before it has been tested long-term to determine if the drug has any long-term side effects or if the drug still has any benefits after several years.


Decades of lobbying by pharmaceutical companies has made it difficult for patients and consumers to recover any compensation. Filing a lawsuit is by no means a guarantee of a settlement. If you or a loved one are considering contacting a dangerous drug lawyer, take the time to read about the law firms you are considering. Ask questions about what claims the lawyers are investigating and what might happen in the lawsuit.


If you’ve been injured by a medication, or saw a ‘bad drug’ television commercial that related to you, use the contact form on the right, call my office toll-free at 844-459-8719, or send me an email at msk@thlawyer.com


How are drug lawsuits and medical device lawsuits filed? Are they class actions?



Most drug and medical device lawsuits are not class actions. In a class action, the case is controlled by a handful of plaintiffs and their lawyers. Most critically, if a settlement is reached, then every plaintiff has to accept that settlement or “opt-out” and try to bring their case individually, which is often too expensive and risky to do. These days, most “mass torts” claims, like claims for injuries from prescription drugs and medical devices, are handled in “consolidated” litigation, which is different from a class action.


In “consolidated” litigation, each individual lawsuit is filed separately. The courts, however, “consolidate” these cases together so that they are handled by a single court. Usually, there will be a consolidated litigation in federal court and a consolidated litigation in state court. In these consolidated cases, the court will typically appoint a large group of lawyers from different firms to perform the pre-trial work for all of the plaintiffs. That work includes obtaining and reviewing millions of pages of documents from the drug or medical device company, as well as hiring and working with top-notch experts in relevant medical fields. Then, the court picks a small number of cases, called “bellwethers,” to hold a jury trial. These bellwethers are intended to provide information to everyone — the plaintiffs, the defendants, and the courts — about how successful these cases are in jury trials, such as how often they win, what kinds of issues make them more likely to be won, and what amount of compensation the injured people are awarded by the jury.

How do drug lawsuit settlements and medical device lawsuit settlements happen? What kinds of settlement amounts are awarded?



Every case is different and there are no guarantees that future cases will be handled like past cases. There are, however, some recurring themes in settlements of drug lawsuits and medical device lawsuits. The two main types of settlements are “global” settlements and “inventory” settlements. In a global settlement, all of the lawsuits are settled at once, using pre-defined criteria for the evaluation of cases that has been negotiated with a group of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. In an inventory settlement, law firms settle all of the cases they have on file, using criteria agreed to by that specific law firm. In each instance, each individual plaintiff has the right to refuse the settlement.


The settlement amounts involve a variety of factors. Obviously, the plaintiffs’ lawyers would like these amounts to be as high as possible, because they are paid on a contingent fee, where the amount they earn is a part of what their client earns. But the issue is: what will the defendants pay? Often, these settlement amounts are determined by a variety of factors, such as:

  • the strength of the evidence in support of the claim
  • the injuries suffered by the plaintiff, such as whether the plaintiff died, the injuries are permanent, or the plaintiff was hospitalized
  • the age of the plaintiff
  • the amount of money needed to pay for future medical care caused by the bad drug or defective medical device


If you have any questions, feel free to ask! You can also read some of my articles about the legal issues that arise in unsafe drug and medical device litigation: