Missouri Injury Attorney Blog

Injury Lawyer for Southwest Missouri~David A. Payne

Heart attack or stroke victims from the once-popular painkiller Vioxx and want early partial payments now have another month to file paperwork to support their claims under a settlement with manufacturer Merck & Co.

Cardin & Payne represnts many VIOXX victims and are teamed up with Carey & Danis of St. Louis.

Claims are still coming in to BrownGreer PLC, the Richmond, Va., law firm. Merck's lawyer told U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, some law firms especially those with many clients registered for the settlement are still working on many of the claims.

Merck has agreed to put off the claims deadline from March 31 until May 1, 2008. The deadline remains July and possibly may be set off as late as October for those who don't want an early partial payment.

As of Monday, 58,571 people were listed as wanting to join the settlement. However, 8,690 weren't eligible because they claim Vioxx caused a medical problem other than stroke or heart attack.

He also explained a private Web site set up by his firm lets people see what paperwork has arrived for each client, whether it is complete.
The site includes a spreadsheet to calculate claims from the dates for and number of pills in a plaintiff's Vioxx prescriptions and free samples.

Each law firm can see information for only its own clients.

Those include authorization to check their medical records, an agreement to drop all claims against Merck, and a signed list of the specific claims being dropped. People who want "extraordinary injury payments" also must agree to let attorneys check their employment records.