Overseas Vioxx victims encouraged by Texas verdict

The verdict by a jury in Texas that blamed Merck for the death of Robert Ernst and awarded over a quarter billion dollars to his widow Carol Ernst is now making lawyers worldwide better understand how the litigation will play out. The fact that there are thousands of internal Merck documents that implicate the company means that all they have to show is that the heart attack was caused by Vioxx.

While the lawsuits have exploded in the United States, the process is just starting overseas, though this verdict is definitely going to give them a boost. Plaintiffs and solicitors in the UK, for example, are working on plans to sue Merck while Australian lawyers are collaborating with British lawyers to file lawsuits against Merck in American courts. But the lawyers are being cautious. For instance, Slate and Gordon law firm in Australia is only accepting instructions from people who took 25mg of Vioxx per day, and who suffered heart attacks following at least 18 months Vioxx usage. "We are not able to investigate claims on behalf of people who suffered strokes," the firm says. That is not the case in the United States where attorneys are able to claim a personal injury if the health of a patient was compromised after taking Vioxx.

In a recent report it has been found that as many as 2,000 Britons are dead due to Vioxx, but since Britain does not have a "no-win-no-fee system" (which the United States does), they will simply cross the pond to fight it out in the Garden State, where Merck's headquarters are based.

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