Parents and Guardians of Opioid Babies Fight for Class Certification

The guardians of infants born to mothers who took opioids while pregnant should be able to join forces in a national class action lawsuit, asserts legal parents and guardians of babies exposed to opioids after a judge dismissed their request for Class certification.

United States District Judge Dan Polster dismissed the bid for certification on Feb. 1, ruling that the proposed Class was not well defined or ascertainable.

Now, the parents and legal guardians of the babies exposed to opioids want Judge Polster to take another look, saying that he’s confused about the medical treatment for infants exposed to these prescription medications while in the womb.

“The court has determined that the pharmacological weaning of the NAS Children at issue in this matter cannot be related to in utero opioid exposure, because the weaning occurred too late after birth,” the plaintiff notes adding that the ruling creates confusion over an important treatment.

Specifically, the issue being noted is the treatment of withdrawals experienced by opioid babies after birth. Infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) can face potentially severe, lifelong effects and treatment of it includes dosing the infants with opioids, noted the plaintiffs.

The motion for reconsideration also took issue with the court finding that birth mothers must have been addicted to opioids, not just taking a subscription, to qualify. The parents and guardians argue that this qualification will result in further confusion.

“Whether a birth mother was or was not ‘addicted’ to opioids prior to the birth of a child, is irrelevant to the child’s status as having been diagnosed with NAS,” points out the motion for reconsideration.

The national prescription opiate multidistrict litigation has been winding its way through the court system after more than 65 class action lawsuits alleging pharmaceutical companies falsely advertised opioids, fueling an epidemic across the U.S., were consolidated in 2017.

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The parents and guardians are represented by Marc E. Dann of Dann Law Firm; Scott R. Bickford and Spencer R. Doody of Martzell Bickford & Centola; Celeste Brustowicz, Barry J. Cooper and Stephen H. Wussow of Cooper Law Firm LLC; Kevin W. Thompson and David R. Barney of Thompson Barney Law Firm; Kent Harrison Robbins of the Law Offices of Kent Harrison Robbins PA and Donald Creadore of the Creadore Law Firm PC.

The Prescription Opiate MDL is In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation, Case No. 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

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