Should I join a class action lawsuit?

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 09/24/2020 at 04:25 • Filed to: None

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As you may or may not know, last year I was diagnosed with colon cancer, and to the best of my knowledge (I no longer have insurance so I haven’t s een a doctor this year) it’s in remission. I keep hearing about links between colon cancer and Ranitidine, AKA Zantac, an OTC medication that I once used. It wasn’t as effective for me as another acid controller so I don’t think I bought more than one bottle of it, but keep in mind it was from Costco so it wasn’t a small quantity of pills. Could it have been the cause of my cancer? Possibly, but I don’t know how much of it is necessary to cause cancer.

Should I join the lawsuit? I’m not sure what I have to lose at this point. I have no idea what goes on with these kinds of lawsuits and how much of a hassle of would be, nor do I know what the payout may be. Getting a receipt shouldn’t be a problem since Costco seems to have all of this in their system,but I don’t know how cooperative they are in this kind of situation.

NKato > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 04:49

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Start by asking if they have any digital records of your purchase. If the receipt still exists, get in on the lawsuit.

I think it could've been responsible for accelerating the cancer.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 05:18

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definitely 

My bird IS the word > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 06:38

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Depends. Sometimes with class actions the award gets split between so many people that it ends up being way less than if you sue yourself. Although it sounds as if you are in no financial position to sue yourself so go for it. Can always get a free legal consultation from a lawyer.

Merkin Muffley > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 06:49

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Formalizing a discovery request can force Costco to provide it.

Sorry to hear of your illness. Best wishes. 

notsomethingstructural > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 07:07

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Are you joining as a class member or a named party / lead plaintiff?

If you are joining as a class member, remember that in doing so you are forfeiting your right to pursue further damages against them individually. You will be entitled to your share of the settlement or judgement but that’s it. The good news about this is if you can prove you bought Zantac and have colon cancer they will typically include you in the plaintiff class because that’s the entire point of a class action - it is not to review your individual case on the merits of whether the Zantac actually caused it. Zantac in theory would be agreeing to set up a settlement fund to pay casually and directly linked claims to avoid further litigation. The bad news is the settlement is not likely to cover all your costs. It might specifically only cover a %.

If you are going as a named / lead plaintiff, you’re typically entitled to the specific damages in excess of your share of the settlement, but that is because the specifics of your case will be under a microscope as everyone’s lawyers decide how to proceed. They are attempting to link Zantac to your cancer on behalf of everyone else in the class. You may not want that, but if you were to sue Zantac individually it would not be remarkably different. But in exchange for all that intrusion, testimony, involvement, etc, you would be typically be entitled to the damages you have proven at trial, or a settlement acceptable to you personally.

This is a super intense personal choice and really one you should be talking to lawyers about instead of oppo (I am not a lawyer this is not legal advice). Even a lawyer you’ve met casually might have suggestions or point you to another lawyer who can give you advice, or who could point you to a third lawyer. You don’t have to go straight to the guy who would litigate your case for good advice that helps you understand your options, and in my experience that’s not typically what happens. These guys all know each other and generally speaking anyone you talk to on referral won’t charge you for a consultation or take a case they’re not equipped to handle. If you call a guy out of the phone book he has (or could have) different motivations. That’s where I would start in this, anyways.

I’m sorry to hear about this and hope you get the justice you’re entitled to, both in your mind and under the law. 

haveacarortwoorthree2 > notsomethingstructural 09/24/2020 at 08:07

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“If you are going as a named / lead plaintiff, you’re typically entitled to the specific damages in excess of your share of the settlement” 

This is incorrect. The class representatives typically get a small payment over and above the distributed settlement amount (unless you live in Florida, Georgia, or Alabama and the case is pending in federal court , as the 11th Circuit has held that such payments are not allowed ).

haveacarortwoorthree2 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 08:15

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If you are not interested in pursuing your own lawsuit, then join the class. There likely will be a settlement at some point that will pay you some amount of money. If you would never pursue that claim on your own, then any payment you get is better than nothing. You likely will have to do nothing other than fill out a couple of forms to get a check (probably 3 years from now, or even longer ).

If you are interested in pursuing your own claim, then my advice would be to talk to a knowledgeable lawyer about the specifics of your situation to see if you have a claim worth pursuing. I don’t know enough about the underlying facts to provide an educated guess about the validity of a claim, but one bottle may not be sufficient to convince a lawyer to take your case on contingency due to significant causation questions. Again, though, I am not up to speed on the potential claims at issue so you really should find someone who is.

Let me know if you want more info on the process. I no longer do that type of work , but I have served as class counsel in one lawsuit and defendants’ counsel in numerous class actions. 

notsomethingstructural > haveacarortwoorthree2 09/24/2020 at 08:20

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I’m going to defer to you on this since you sound more knowledgeable on the subject, but whenever I’ve been a member of a class I do read the settlements before consenting and have always been irritated at how much more the representatives got as plaintiffs on behalf of the class. I’m not sure how it works for personal injury but even on stuff where I’ve been entitled to a few hundred bucks  they’ve usually been awarded their specific damages or very close to it. It could very well be different in the context of personal injury where an extra $25k is pocket lint

Roadkilled > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/24/2020 at 10:27

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Are the attorneys seeking people who took the medication and have had a diagnosis of cancer, or are they just looking for people who took the medication? The attorneys want as many people as they can get so they can justify a larger claim for damages. They are probably taking 30 - 40% of any judgement. If the class is large enough, what’s left will be surprisingly small when distributed among the plaintiffs.

Find out how large the pool of plaintiffs may be and where you would fit in. I may have the numbers wrong, but we can look at the talcum powder lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson. The original case was a class of 22 women with ovarian cancer. Follow on cases started growing in size until there were suits filed where the class was anybody who had purchased J&J talcum powder. Class members for that last group might see a few dollars each if their case was settled.

It may be a pain figuring out the parameters of the class action suit, but it will determine if you have to go through years of waiting and questions for a chance at a reasonable payout or just enough to add fries to your order at a fast food restaurant.

RPM esq. > notsomethingstructural 09/25/2020 at 12:42

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Yeah, he’s right. This— “ I f you are going as a named / lead plaintiff, you’re typically entitled to the specific damages in excess of your share of the settlement”—would not be legal in a class case and no court would approve a settlement structured that way . C lass reps often get incentive payments, but they aren’t based remotely on their damages, they’re based on the time and effort they had to put into the litigation by testifying etc. Source: I litigate class actions in federal courts nationwide . You’ve heard of some of them.

RPM esq. > haveacarortwoorthree2 09/25/2020 at 12:43

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This is good advice.

RPM esq. > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/25/2020 at 12:53

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I litigate class actions for a living (not pharma cases, but the process and rules are the same ) and would be happy to help you understand your options . rpm.handshake at gmail.

Moltenburn > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/25/2020 at 14:49

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I guess I should consider my self lucky I took the costco rantidine for years. No colon issues as of yet but gets a guy thinking. 

notsomethingstructural > RPM esq. 09/25/2020 at 21:48

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Neat. I hope you’re more the type that does the legitimate class actions than the ones where the attorneys get $40m contingency fees and the class get $.37 each

RPM esq. > notsomethingstructural 09/25/2020 at 22:27

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Anybody you know sell their VW back to VW  for more than they bought it for? My dad did.

notsomethingstructural > RPM esq. 09/26/2020 at 10:53

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Thanks for your service. I generally like lawyers but sounds like even “the haters” (you know the type)  would like what you’re doing.

Thomas Donohue > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/27/2020 at 10:10

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I think the threshold for the class action was 3 months of dosage. Not sure how it was normally dosed (I’m a prilosec guy which is 14 day dosage, sometimes sold in three packs - six weeks).

Anyway just make sure you have proof of 12+ weeks worth of the OTC purchases, that is probably the bare minimum of what they will want.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Thomas Donohue 09/27/2020 at 13:05

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As I recall this is how it was sold to me. This should meet that requirement.