1. Q. Side effects from Accutane can cover a wide range, I understand. What Accutane side effects injuries are apt to get a law firm to take my case?
A. Personal injury lawyers usually work on a contingency basis, meaning they aren’t paid until they -- and your case -- prevail. Then they get a percent of the settlement or jury award. For such reasons, injury lawyers seek cases involving catastrophic injuries with a chance for large verdicts or awards. With this in mind, your best bet to get an Accutane lawyer to take your case is if you’ve suffered a serious if not debilitating bowel disease requiring surgery, as in removal of your colon. Common bowel diseases involved in an Accutane lawsuit are the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) known as ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease.
2. Q. I have irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS. Would that lead to an Accutane lawsuit?
A. It certainly could. IBS is an extremely unpleasant and harmful condition which also could prompt an Accutane lawsuit.
3. Q. I was prescribed Accutane more than 10 years ago. Is there a statute of limitations which would keep me from pursuing a defective drug lawsuit?
A. Every state in America has statutes of limitations setting forth how soon you must pursue legal action after suffering an injury. In many cases the time frame is two years. However, persons who took an acne medication could not be expected to know that a bowel disease arising years later was due to such acne treatment, and since users were not warned by the manufacturer of potential dangers, juries are not sticking strictly to statutes of limitations. Instead, they’re allowing a “discovery” rule which holds that statutes of limitations don’t apply until a victim becomes alerted that his or her side effects injury was caused by a defective drug. If you just learned this information today, you may have two years to file a lawsuit, though it’s best not to wait.
4. Q. I didn’t develop UC until years after I was prescribed Accutane. Does that hurt my chances for an Accutane lawsuit?
A. It’s dependent on how many years elapsed. Some law firms resist taking cases when the injury first arose more than five years after a drug was taken.
5. Q. Are Accutane lawsuits proving to be successful for plaintiffs?
A.Yes -- emphatically. To date, a half-dozen Accutane cases have led to jury verdicts, and each has favored victims. In fact, jury awards so far have totaled more than $56 million, including $25 million for an Alabama man who had to have his colon removed due to a bowel disease caused by Accutane. Remarkably, that case was an appeal by Roche Pharmaceuticals of a $2.62 million award. After resisting that, Roche was ordered to pay roughly 10 times more on appeal.
6. Q. Are plaintiffs being awarded punitive damages or compensatory damages -- and what, exactly, is the difference?
A. Up to now damages have been strictly compensatory, to pay back victims for their lost salary, medical expenses and other costs. Such damages also cover pain and suffering, though these are harder to quantify. By contrast, punitive damages are designed to punish defendants. These have not yet been awarded in an Accutane lawsuit.
7. Q. What factors are causing Roche to lose Accutane lawsuits?
A. Juries have determined that Roche knew that its drug was defective yet continued to sell it anyway in order to keep making billions of dollars in profits. Roche also has been found to have failed to alert Accutane users about the drug’s potential dangers.
8. Q. Accutane trials seem clustered in New Jersey. Why, and will this impact my lawsuit’s prospects?
A. Accutane lawsuits are being tried in New Jersey since that is the U.S. home of Swiss-based Roche. If you live outside New Jersey, you may not have to travel, but rather only give a taped deposition in your own hometown. Also, a majority of personal injury lawsuits are settled out of court, making it unnecessary for victims to appear in court.
9. Q. Could my Accutane lawsuit be lumped into a class-action suit?
A. Not necessarily. Individual Accutane lawsuits are still being filed and will continue to be. However, if you’d prefer the safety in numbers approach of a class action suit, it is your right to pursue one.
10. Q. Now that Roche has taken Accutane off the market, will that impact my lawsuit?
A. No. Roche’s decision not to sell any more Accutane only protects it from lawsuits by would-be future users of the drug. And don’t forget that generic Accutane products Amnesteem, Claravis and Sotret remain available, each with Isotretinoin, the same active ingredient that’s made Accutane so dangerous.