U.S. District Judge Herndon, who is presiding over all federal Pradaxa lawsuits has established the pretrial schedule for the first bellwether trial. On September 8, 2014, the first trial will involve the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Suzanne Mackiewicz, on behalf of her mother, Malachy Higgins.
The Higgins case is selected as the first out of several thousand lawsuits on file, involving bleeding problems from Pradaxa.
Multidistrict Pradaxa Consolidation
All federal product liability lawsuits filed against Boehringer Ingelheim, the manufacturer of Pradaxa have been consolidated as part of an MDL, or Multidistrict Litigation. The MDL is centralized for pre-trial discovery before U.S. District Judge Herndon in the Southern District of Illinois.