If you are suffering from shingles, one of the first things you might be concerned about is filing a shingles lawsuit. Are there any ways to file these lawsuits successfully in the future? While it is true that the courts have increasingly become willing to acknowledge the value of these cases and the potential they hold for plaintiffs, the reality is that lawsuits of all types are rarely successful. The biggest reason is that shingles is not a disease or condition, but rather a symptom of something else that has gone terribly wrong with the patient’s body.
Shingles Lawsuit
Shingles is often thought of as an illness, which makes the case much more difficult because the definition of an illness is extremely vague. For example, a person can be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, or some other mental illness, and this diagnosis will transform a lawsuit into a class action lawsuit. However, a lawsuit goes beyond simply identifying the person at fault for causing your vision loss. A lawsuit also identifies a cause and provides remedies to make sure the person who caused your problem never infects anyone else again. Unfortunately, the courts are becoming increasingly reluctant to allow class action lawsuits, and so lawyers are opting to file shingles lawsuits on their own instead of using the questionable tactics that go into class action lawsuits.
In 2021, a law firm in New Jersey began offering a completely new method of handling claims:
the development of what are known as an adverse event report, or AAR. These are not standard forms that claim a victim of shingles. Instead, these are documents that explain the specifics of your case and your claim to any and all insurance companies that may be responsible for paying your medical bills. Because these AARs are not required when filing a lawsuit in any way, many lawyers are choosing not to use them. Unfortunately, the rules of the game for filing a lawsuit are quickly changing, and the New Jersey State Court recently decided to require plaintiffs to file AARs with their shingles lawsuit filing companies.
The AAR is a document that describes each side of your case and provides details regarding the specific cause of your injury and any pre-existing conditions that you currently suffer from.
For instance, one section of the AAR will list the exact name of the manufacturer of the vaccines that caused your injury. If you were injured due to Gardasil vaccine, you will need to provide this information to your lawyer. However, if your pain and suffering were caused by the Gardasil virus itself, you will not be required to provide the name of the manufacturer.
As a result, the State of New Jersey is now requiring plaintiffs in shingles lawsuits to file AARs with their preferred attorney.
The state of New Jersey is now attempting to impose a nationwide standard on all cases, which means that if you file a shingles lawsuit in the state of New Jersey, you must also file an AAR with the same attorney who represents you in your national lawsuit. (The attorney you hire in your national litigation should be able to tell you which attorneys are currently practicing in your state, and can therefore create an “affiliate” or “sub-contractor” relationship with them, so that they will provide legal assistance nationwide.)
In short, if you are suffering from shingles, a strong argument for allowing a class-action lawsuit would be based on the fact that you have been damaged by Gardasil, chicken pox, and/or other similar vaccines.
Moreover, since AARs have become mandatory under the current laws of the nation, it is likely that any person who files a shingles lawsuit will receive compensation because of the current policies of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Finally, it is worth noting that even if the FDA decides not to ban the chicken pox vaccine, a significant number of people who have suffered serious health consequences as a result of chicken pox will still receive compensation.
