Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11434

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Publication type: media release

Legal Alliance Formed to Fight Antidepressant Drug Manufacturers in Birth Defect Lawsuits
Baum Hedlund Law 2007 Sep 10
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070910/0299979.html

Full text:

Two Southern California law firms, Baum Hedlund and Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson, have just formed a joint venture to prosecute the firms’ SSRI antidepressant birth defect cases.

Lawsuits related to SSRI antidepressants (such as Paxil) and birth defects have been filed in many states over the past year. Joinder of Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson, a nationally recognized plaintiffs’ trial firm with Baum Hedlund, a firm that has over 17 years experience specializing in SSRI litigation, creates a formidable team to aggressively lead the litigation and trial of these cases.

Baum Hedlund, managed by senior partner Michael Baum, has extensive experience in litigating personal injury, wrongful death and consumer class action cases against major drug companies for more than 20 years. The firm’s drug product liability litigation department has handled over 3,000 antidepressant product liability cases, and many other wrongful death and personal injury cases involving drugs or medical devices manufactured by Alpha Therapeutics, Baxter, Bayer Corp, Ciba-Geigy, Cutter Biological, Dalkon Shield, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Oclassen Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Wyeth.

Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson senior partner Mark P. Robinson, Jr., presently serves on the Plaintiffs’ State Liaison Committee of the Multi-District Diet Drug Product Liability Litigation (Fen-Phen) and is Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel for the California Coordinated Diet Drug Litigation, the California Coordinated PPA Litigation and the California Coordinated Rezulin Litigation, and the California Coordinated Firestone Tire Litigation. Mr. Robinson has a couple of multi-billion dollar and many multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements in cases against such defendants as Merck, Baycol, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, and Big Tobacco.

Baum Hedlund and Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson are looking forward to working together to represent their clients whose children have died or are currently suffering from antidepressant-induced birth defects, (including heart defects, neural-tube defects [brain and spinal cord], craniosynostosis [abnormally shaped skull], infant omphalocele [abdominal wall defects], club feet, anal atresia and PPHN) related to SSRI drugs such as Paxil, Prozac, Celexa, Lexapro, and Effexor.
Attorneys Karen Barth Menzies and Jennifer Liakos will be transferring to RCR from Baum Hedlund to continue their work on these cases.

Mark Robinson stated, “It is really important that our firms have joined together to help these children and the parents. I don’t think as lawyers we can do anything more valuable.”

Michael Baum stated about the association, “We worked with Mark Robinson some years ago on a tragic case involving a school bus explosion that took the lives of a number of children and have been talking for years about working together on another project. We are very excited about this joint venture. Working shoulder to shoulder, our two firms will form a powerhouse alliance fighting for families whose lives have been destroyed as a result of a failure by drug companies to warn about the potential risks of their drugs.”

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   Robin McCall
   PR/Media Relations
   Baum Hedlund, P.C.
   RMcCall@BaumHedlundLaw.com