Class Action and Multidistrict (MDL) Litigation Practice

Class actions and multidistrict litigation allow individuals and businesses to litigate against large, well-funded and powerful corporations on a more level playing field. These cases can be difficult to manage, involving years of work and are expense to prosecute. They often involve multiple plaintiffs or defendants, in different jurisdictions.  Class action litigation demands significant coordination of efforts between counsel and the court.

The Sommers Schwartz Complex Litigation Group specializes in class action cases and federal multidistrict actions. The firm has attorneys with a wide variety of skills and class action litigation background teamed with legal assistants who have extensive experience in multidistrict and class action work . We represent both consumers and businesses in state and national class actions and in MDL litigation throughout the country. In addition, Sommers Schwartz is often called upon to co-counsel class actions with other law firms.

Sommers Schwartz attorneys have class action and multidistrict experience that covers a wide variety of subject areas. We've represented individuals who have been wrongfully denied employment rights, consumers whose insurance company have denied coverage or underpaid claims and we represent clients injured by pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices.

A few of our more prominent class action litigation cases include:

• Working on the Celebrex® and Bextra® Marketing Sales Practices and Product Liability Litigation (MDL 1699) which recently settled for $894,000,000. We represented the healthcare insurers, union health and welfare funds and consumers that overpaid for the drugs.
• Representing health insurers and unions in a RICO case recently certified as a class action in New York against Eli Lilly for price gouging relative to its blockbuster antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa. The alleged losses exceed $3 billion. In January of 2009, the Federal government announced Lilly would plead guilty to criminal charges and would pay $1.42 billion in fines and restitution for improper Zyprexa prescriptions
• Working on behalf of consumers injured by ReNu Moisture Loc contact lens solution recalled by Bausch and Lomb after it was found to cause severe bacterial infections
• Serving as lead class counsel in air emission cases, including a recently settled case against United States Steel Company for $4,450,000 on behalf of the citizens River Rouge and Ecorse Michigan.
• Filing suit against Allstate Insurance for their decision to pay homeowners’ in urban and depressed real estate markets with loss claims based on depressed real estate market values rather than the actual cash value as called for under their insurance policies.
• Representing workers who were not paid minimum wage or overtime under labor laws. Suits were filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws, in Michigan, Florida, Maryland, New Mexico, and Mississippi. 
• Currently representing an auto manufacturing supply company in an action against China’s most prominent auto manufacturer, Cherry Motors.
• Appointed co-lead counsel in a high-profile securities action brought under the PSLRA against Michigan stock broker Frank Bluestein, and his employers, Gunn Allen and Questar. The case involves investors from California, Michigan, Texas, and Florida who were bilked out of approximately $250,000,000 over a twelve-year “ponzi” scheme.