This month, the New Jersey Supreme Court designated the Abilify litigation in New Jersey a multicounty litigation (MCL). The Notice and Order can be found here: https://www.njcourts.gov/notices/2018/n180510b.pdf.
Though Bergen County Superior Court Judge James DeLuca had been overseeing all of the Abilify cases filed in New Jersey, those cases will now be transferred to Atlantic County Superior Court for centralized management by Judge Nelson C. Johnson. Accordingly, all future Abilify complaints filed in New Jersey Superior Court, no matter where they might be venued, shall be filed in Atlantic County. While Judge Johnson will oversee management and trial issues for the New Jersey Abilify MCL cases, he may, in his discretion, return the cases to the original county of venue for disposition.
The MCL will be litigated in parallel with the multidistrict litigation (MDL) that has been pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, before Judge M. Casey Rodgers, since October 2016. Plaintiffs are cautiously optimistic about the MCL designation and the latest developments in the MDL, including Defendants recently settling the three cases set for initial trials this summer in the MDL, for undisclosed amounts (such representative cases that are worked up for trial are known as “bellwether” cases).
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