News-Press
VILES & BECKMAN, LLC To represent Florida in nationwide Vioxx Class Action
Fort Myers, FL -- Attorney Marcus Viles, of Viles & Beckman, LLC, was recently chosen to represent all Floridians in the national Vioxx multi-district medical monitoring class action now pending in New Orleans, Louisiana before the Honorable Judge Fallon. The move will once again put Viles & Beckman, LLC at the forefront of this national litigation.
Several thousand Vioxx cases are already in suit and it is expected that the total number of claims could approach nearly one hundred thousand victims. To promote judicial efficiency, the federal court system consolidates these cases into one massive MDL (Multi-district litigation), streamlining the litigation so that it may proceed in an orderly, consistent, and timely manner. The first MDL trials are scheduled for later this fall.
The MDL process is also a brutal ‘proving ground’ for lawyers who scramble for appointments, and national recognition, competing with thousands of other lawyers. In the MDL, a select group of plaintiffs attorneys are appointed by the Court to act on behalf of all Vioxx victims nationwide, and in this case, some 1100 separate class actions filed all over the country recently were consolidated into the New Orleans MDL. The Court then demanded the parties streamline these 1100 separate class actions into a single, uniform “Master Complaint” and appoint counsel to represent the class. In this final cut, Attorney Marcus Viles of Viles & Beckman, LLC was selected to be “of counsel” to the Florida medical monitoring class, and as such will be able to continue in his leadership role in the Vioxx litigation.
Viles & Beckman, LLC is no stranger to such high profile cases. Viles & Beckman, LLC filed the first Firestone class action demanding a recall of Firestone Wilderness AT, and ATX tires, after a number of Floridians were seriously injured in tire tread separations and Ford Explorer rollovers. The case ultimately led to Congressional hearings and the recall of several million tires. The firm successfully settled all of its cases, but one, and that case, against Ford Motor Company went to verdict in August 2004, in the federal court in Ft. Myers, for a record $5.4 million dollar verdict. Viles & Beckman, LLC also filed the first statewide Fen Phen case, and successfully represented several hundred Floridians in their quest, first for a recall of the dangerous diet drug cocktail and then compensation for the victims. Viles & Beckman, LLC also represents Floridians who have faulty Guidant pacemaker/defibrillators.
While the other 1100 Vioxx class actions (filed by other attorneys) will be dismissed, Viles’ medical monitoring Vioxx case will proceed forward under the Master Complaint before Judge Fallon. The suit seeks compensation and medical monitoring expenses for the tens of thousands of Floridians who have ingested Vioxx and are uncertain as to their prognosis. Viles’ client, Robert Lane, a previously healthy 39 year-old fitness and exercise buff, suffered a muscle sprain and was prescribed a short bout of Vioxx. He immediately began suffering cardiac symptoms and was hospitalized several times enduring heart catheterizations and other procedures in an effort to determine the damage.
Merck & Co., the manufacturer of Vioxx has been criticized for ignoring warnings about the dangers of Vioxx. One of the warning letters dated in 2001, demanded Merck to reconsider their advertising campaigns and reassess the cardiovascular safety of Vioxx. The FDA claimed that Merck had "engaged in a promotional campaign for Vioxx that minimizes the potentially serious cardiovascular findings that were observed in the Vioxx Gastrointestinal Outcomes Research (VIGOR) study, and thus, misrepresents the safety profile for Vioxx. Specifically, Merck & Co.’s promotional campaign discounts the fact that in the VIGOR study, patients on Vioxx were observed to have a four to five fold increase in myocardial infarctions."
ABOUT VILES & BECKMAN, LLC
Viles & Beckman, LLC has taken pride in making corporations accountable for their actions. Viles & Beckman, LLC was the first law firm in the U.S. to file a class action suit against the manufacturers of the diet drug Fen-Phen. Viles & Beckman, LLC helped lead the successful effort to recall defective tires in the Ford/Firestone class action and has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Good Morning America and CBS Evening News. We have also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and other publications. Viles & Beckman, LLC has been nationally recognized for their extensive work towards defending the rights of the consumer and demand that goliath companies take responsibility for their actions. They hope to promote corporate accountability and to protect the rights of consumers worldwide.