By Buck Daniel
February 20, 2013 – On February 19, 2013 Judge Rebecca Doherty issued a scheduling order to proceed with two potential bellwether trials in the Actos MDL. These trials are tentatively scheduled for January 27, 2014 and April 14, 2014. Both Plaintiff and Defense counsel will submit a pool of candidates to be possible participants in these trials, and the cases will be chosen shortly thereafter submission of these candidates. A bellwether trial is a trial to indicate future trends in a specific type of case. At a bellwether trial, both sides get to see what evidence the other side has, how the cases are decided and, if they are finding for the plaintiffs, what level of compensation is given. Losing a bellwether case does not necessarily mean the defendants won’t pay anything or offer to settle. Based on the evidence against them, they may still decide to settle rather than facing the cost of litigation and future potential losses at trial. But the bellwether trials give both sides in a lawsuit an idea of how future litigation might go.
