Since each of the complaints raise similar questions of fact and law, a group of plaintiffs filed a motion in November 2024, asking the U.S. JPML to create a Depo-Provera Multidistrict Litigation (MDL), to reduce duplicate discovery into common issues in the claims, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings from different judges and to serve the convenience of common witnesses, parties and the judicial system.
Plaintiffs originally asked that the MDL be assigned to one judge in the Northern District of California, where a large number of early claims were filed.
Pfizer and other defendants also supported consolidation, but argued it would be more appropriate to centralize the claims in the Southern District of New York, near Pfizer’s headquarters.
Following oral arguments held last week, the JPML issued a transfer order (PDF) on Friday, choosing neither location. The panel instead assigned the Depo-Provera MDL to U.S District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida, which was the plaintiffs’ alternative venue.
“The Northern District of Florida is an appropriate transferee district for this litigation. Two related actions are pending in this district, which offers the necessary judicial resources and expertise to manage this nationwide litigation in an efficient and convenient manner,” the panel wrote. “Judge M. Casey Rodgers, to whom we assign this MDL, is an able jurist with extensive and exceptional experience presiding over large products liability MDLs. We are confident that she will steer this litigation on a prudent and expeditious course.”
Judge Rodgers recently oversaw pretrial proceedings for lawsuits filed by nearly 300,000 current or former U.S. military members who said defective 3M earplugs caused them to suffer hearing loss and tinnitus, which causes a ringing in the ears. That litigation ended in a nearly $6 billion settlement agreement in March 2024.
Now that the Depo-Provera lawsuits have been consolidated into an MDL, all current and future claims brought in any federal court will be transferred to Judge Rodgers for coordinated discovery, pretrial motions and potentially a series of early bellwether test trials.
However, if the parties fail to reach a Depo-Provera MDL settlement or another resolution after all pretrial proceedings are concluded, each individual meningioma lawsuit may later be remanded back to the U.S. District Court where it was initially filed for an individual trial in the future.