Update to the Nationwide Vioxx Settlement

Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx, has begun to make partial payments to some qualified Vioxx claimants who had heart attacks as direct result of taking their once famed drug. Of the more than 50,000 potential claims, only a few hundred were paid in August, and most other pending claims will actually be paid at a much later date. The claims administrators are not providing updates on when the claims will be processed, and claimants unfortunately has no way of knowing when each individual package will be reviewed. However, once a potential claim is reviewed, deemed eligible for the settlement, and given a points award, it is generally understood that the accepted claim should be paid in line with the particular payout provision in the settlement (partial payment, etc). If you feel the points assigned to the claim are unfair, then the option of appealing the points award will exist for that pending claimant, or claimant’s family.

The partial payments will be made on an estimated value of each point that is assigned to a particular claim; the amount that will be ultimately paid on qualified claims will only be calculated after the claims administrators determine how many claims are qualified overall, and how many points are awarded overall (for each claim). Again, law firms across the country are unfortunately not being told when this will happen. Please check our website for updates as this web blog provide these updates in an effort to help individual clients (or clients represented by other law firms across the country) avoid the time and expense of having to regularly contact the firm about the status of their case. Again, most of the claims are being reviewed by the Claims Administrators of the Merck Class Action, and I can only imagine this will take more time for the review to go through the many thousands of lawsuits nationwide. I hope this blog finds you and your family well, and provides a a brief update of the Vioxx Settlement process.