Finding an attorney experienced in Zyprexa litigation and other similar pharmaceutical drug litigation is your first major step. An attorney who is well schooled in drug litigation will know the parties who can be sued. Patients who claimed to have developed diabetes, pancreatitis, or other illnesses after using Zyprexa will most likely sue Eli Lilly & Co., the makers of Zyprexa. The Zyprexa attorney will also consider the impact on your claim in light of several settlements in which the drug maker agreed to pay over $1.2 billion by 2007 to settle 26,000 lawsuits without admitting any wrongdoing on its part. According to the settlement agreements, the company’s critical documents are sealed and not available to other attorneys or health professionals. The agreements, however, do not foreclose the filing of additional suits.
Other potential entities in the distribution chain are the pharmaceutical sales representatives, the testing laboratories, or the pharmacists who fill the prescriptions. You may also have a Zyprexa lawsuit against your physician. If you started taking Zyprexa after 2003 and were not warned about the possibility of developing diabetes or were not monitored for diabetes, your doctor may be liable for malpractice. Even if you started taking Zyprexa before 2003, there was a warning on the labeling about the risk of developing diabetes, so your doctor should have at least been aware of the risk and probably should have been watching you for symptoms. Discuss this issue with your Zyprexa attorney to see if your doctor shares liability with Eli-Lilly in your particular case.
Getting into the right court is also a consideration. An experienced personal injury attorney who handles Zyprexa litigation knows the right forum, judge, and jury who will be most sympathetic to your Zyprexa injury case. Your lawyer will look to the courts that hand out high verdicts (i.e., cases tried in urban areas typically have higher verdicts than those in rural locations).
Zyprexa lawsuits can be very complex and there is a limited time period within which you must take action (known as the statute of limitations) if you want to enforce your rights. It varies by state (some states will give you two years to file a lawsuit, others may give you three, etc.) and it also depends on the specific facts of your case. If you do not file your lawsuit within the statute of limitations, you lose your right to sue and your right to recover any money for your injury, so it's important to see a qualified attorney right away.