Claims administrator: Interim payments in $4.85 billion Vioxx s...

Vioxx checks ! That is all I have heard, get with the program. Promises and more promises and no show. Not dependable for the victims, we have suffered enough, we all need to sue for mental anguish. How do you explain that the checks are going out to over 49,ooo people August 28? Therre is no way with all this feet dragging. The holiday is cming up and forget it until after all the week's vacations. What a crock.

It was stated that payments will BEGIN Aug. 28th....not that ALL checks would go out that day. As I understand it, 2500 cases are ready for checks and 3441 cases are ready to have points awarded to them. The checks are to be paid on a "rolling" basis (meaning they will cut the checks as the cases are reviewed and processed rather than making everyone wait until ALL the cases have been processed). This is a HUGE settlement and there is no way the claims administrator's office could possibly get thru and process 50,000 cases in 2 months and it's ridiculous to expect it.

No it is not ridiculous to expect it, We as vioxx victims were made a deal by the big Pharm giant, and it didn't take them that long to make those billions off a defective drug, so come on quit being a patsy to these people, they need to honor their word, we did. 50,000 cases in 2 months? Why with all the modern technology it's simple, and they knew this was coming, more manpower if necessary. The IRS did big bulk of Stimulus checks in record time. I got mine exactly the day they promised.

Unfortunately, you seem to be as clueless as you are unpleasant. The IRS didn't have to review thousands of pages of medical and pharmacy records, before they mailed out their checks, either! All they had to do was look at the numbers on 3 lines of your income tax return, which is all digitized on their computer network. Modern technology doesn't even come into play in this settlement...the medical and pharmacy records have to physically be read through by people who are familiar with medical terminology looking for the specific information they need to make the judgment call. If you knew ANYTHING about legal settlements or the legal profession in general, you would know they practice "quality rather than quantity"...."accura cy rather than speed". They check, double check and triple check to make sure it's RIGHT, because if they are wrong, it can highly impact the rest of a person's life. The lawyers get paid regardless and the ones who ultimately pay for any mistakes are the CLIENTS. Personally, I'd rather have it right tomorrow than wrong today.

PS...the IRS has a huge number of employees....the gates committee is miniscule compared to them.

I have one question, did anyone receive payment from vioxx yet ? I truly believe merck is giving All of us the run around.

The payments go to your attorney first. They put it thru their trust account, make out a check to themselves for legal fees then send you the rest. I doubt anyone has received anything yet....checks were just mailed out yesterday.

Kerry_s wife wrote:

The payments go to your attorney first. They put it thru their trust account, make out a check to themselves for legal fees then send you the rest. I doubt anyone has received anything yet....checks were just mailed out yesterday.

Did they actually tell you that? By they I mean your attorney.

Yep..they sure did. The checks will be made out to you and your attorney both, so both have to endorse it. Our attorney sent us a limited power of attorney so we don't have to send it back and forth thru the mail to get both endorsements. This way, they can just endorse for him and then put it thru their trust account and make the split. I figured that was why they sent the POA, so I asked about it when I called them. (We always did it that way when I worked in the law office, too). From what their letter said when they sent it, BG won't send the check to them unless they have the POA first.

I received an Email from someone who claims to have spoken to BrownGreer today, and was told that a batch of checks were sent out on 8/28, and that they will follow the same pattern of sending one batch per month until the process is complete. I don't want to fuel any rumors, but this sounds like a plausible scenerio.

Mike...if it was supposedly one of the claimants who wrote the email, I highly doubt it's true unless they are a pro se claimant. I tried to call Brown Greer last week.....they finally returned my call the other day and they said since I had legal representation they could not talk to me then referred me to our own attorney for information. Besides, at the rate of 2500 checks per month, it would take about 2 years to pay all the claims.

If Brown Greer continues to process claims and cut checks on a "rolling basis" one might assume that they would do this on a weekly basis.....(wishful thinking maybe). But, Merck did deposit the first $500 million around August 6th to cover interim checks that would be going out soon. Some claimants will be getting as little as $5000 and a few will get as much as $l or $2 Million. That $500 million will cover a fairly large number of folks I would think. Another deposit of $500 million is supposed to be deposited by Merck in September.

I read on line, they said they were putting the checks in a escrow account until the attorneys and insurance companies are paid, then send the balance to the claimants. I want to know if they are going to send us something stating how they came to the number of points and the amount of money we are to recieve, if any.

Brenda....attorneys usually provide some kind of statement showing how everything was split including a detailed, itemized statement of costs and expenses. If they don't, I'm sure you can ask your attorney to provide one. I know the Bar Assn. in my state audits the attorney trust accounts once every 3 years and they will have to account for every penny of where the money went.

I believe someone stated that you have to sign papers agreeing to the number of points awarded before the check will be issued....probably due to the fact that you CAN disagree and ask for a review/appeal.

The "temporary escrow account" will most likely be the attorney's trust account....that way, they can write the checks to themselves, to us and to the private ins. co. or gov't medicare/medicaid, if needed.

we were told you can not appeal points.
you may appeal a denial. you hve already sign your rights away. you get what you get!

This is probably the thread that deals more with my questions regarding the points allocations. If Waiting with Faith is correct and points cannot be questioned, it seems the process is extremely arbitrary. I have read in these posts that some claimants have added narratives to their medical records in an attempt to validate the damages they incurred. Is this an effective strategy, or are we strictly subject to the interpretations of the examiners? Here's an example of what I'm driving at: My wife suffered a stroke at age 51 after 21 months of Vioxx usage. She'd had valvuloplasty 14 years earlier, but was not experiencing heart failure or AFIB, has a BMI around 22 and no evidence of high blood pressure. Will the mention of valvuloplasty (like angioplasty, but involving a heart valve)be interpretted as a pre-existing vascular condition? It's two different things, but could be misinterpretted.

The settlement agreement states that each qualified claimant will be notified of his/her total point award. The claimant may appeal that award to the Special Master, who will set up a review of the claim. The number of points may increase, decrease, or stay the same, but the decision will be final, binding and cannot be re-appealed.

Kerry_s wife wrote:

Brenda....attorneys usually provide some kind of statement showing how everything was split including a detailed, itemized statement of costs and expenses. If they don't, I'm sure you can ask your attorney to provide one. I know the Bar Assn. in my state audits the attorney trust accounts once every 3 years and they will have to account for every penny of where the money went.
I believe someone stated that you have to sign papers agreeing to the number of points awarded before the check will be issued....probably due to the fact that you CAN disagree and ask for a review/appeal.
The "temporary escrow account" will most likely be the attorney's trust account....that way, they can write the checks to themselves, to us and to the private ins. co. or gov't medicare/medicaid, if needed.

A few days ago My mothr's attorney informed her of the total number of points she was given. He informed her she will receive an interim payment of 40% of the total award in 60 days if she accepts the decision. If the total payment is being sent to him why would she receive an interim payment? He is recommending an appeal, but she intends to tell him no.

A few days ago My mothr's attorney informed her of the total number of points she was given. He informed her she will receive an interim payment of 40% of the total award in 60 days if she accepts the decision. If the total payment is being sent to him why would she receive an interim payment? He is recommending an appeal, but she intends to tell him no

MinaNY, the payment being sent to your mother's attorney is her interim payment. The amount, sent from the claims administrator, will be placed into an escrow account for safekeeping. The attorney's fee will be deducted from that as well as any medicare repayment (if applicable). The remainder of the money will be hers. This is the process as explained to me.