Lawyers Meet with Court Over Upcoming NSF Litigation
On October 21, 2008 lawyers met with the Court to discuss the process for selecting the first Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis lawsuits for trial and which of the five gadolinium contrast agents the plaintiffs’ were exposed to during MRIs. The use of gadolinium based contrast agents used in MRIs has been linked to NSF in patients with moderate to severe kidney dysfunction. As of now almost 400 NSF lawsuits have been filed against the 5 manufacturers of the contrasting dye. In an effort to centralize and coordinate pretrial litigation the U.S. Judicial Panel of Multidistrict Litigation transferred all the NSF federal cases to Judge Dan Polster in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in February 2008. Judge Polster has been assigned to nearly 300 of the lawsuits. Lawyers representing the individuals and families whose lives have been affected by NSF are pushing the court to begin trial quickly because many of their clients are sick and may not survive a lengthy litigation.
