Depo-Provera Lawsuit Updates
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If you have a Depo-Provera claim, there is now a date to know: November 30, 2026. On October 16, the lawyers leading the federal cases told the court that settlement sign-ups are under way. Sign-ups close on that date.
The same report did not say who qualifies or what anyone will be paid. Those terms are still private. Meanwhile, Pfizer is pressing a new argument to end the cases that stay outside the settlement.
Settlement sign-ups close November 30, 2026. If you received Depo-Provera injections and were later diagnosed with a meningioma, you can ask for a free case review now. Whether that history supports a claim depends on your injection dates, your diagnosis, and the deadline in your state. Pick the situation that fits:
Free and no obligation. Deadlines are set by your state and usually run from the date of diagnosis. Submitting a review request does not create an attorney-client relationship.
- Settlement sign-ups close November 30
- Who the settlement leaves out
- What has happened recently
- The court appointed the settlement team
- Pfizer’s new push to end the cases outside the settlement
- The science hearing happened, and no ruling has come
- How many cases there are
- What to watch next
- How this page fits with the main Depo-Provera page
Settlement sign-ups close November 30
On June 15, 2026, Pfizer and the lawyers appointed to lead the federal cases announced a settlement of most of the Depo-Provera meningioma claims. They signed the full agreement in late July. The dollar terms are in that agreement, and the agreement is confidential.
On October 16, those lead lawyers filed a written status report with the court. It says registration for the settlement program is open now. The deadline to register is November 30, 2026.
The court’s own orders give the outline. In July, Judge M. Casey Rodgers wrote that the two sides expect roughly 80 percent of the women in the federal cases to qualify. She also wrote that payments should start going out by the first quarter of 2027. The terms were explained to plaintiffs at a town hall meeting. The written rules on who qualifies and how much each person gets have not been made public.
Most activity in the federal cases is on hold while the settlement is put in place. The judge paused nearly everything else so both sides could focus on it. The first test trial, once set for December 2026, is off the calendar.
If you already have a lawyer, ask whether you have been registered and what November 30 means for you. Your lawyer is the person who can tell you where your own case sits.
Sign-ups close November 30, 2026. If you do not have a lawyer, that is the date to work back from. A firm needs time to collect your injection records and your diagnosis before it can register anyone, so the earlier the review, the more room there is. A free review looks at your injection history, your diagnosis date and your state’s deadline. Whether a case qualifies depends on those facts.
Start a Free Review Before November 30Educational purposes only. Submitting the form on Lawsuit Center does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Who the settlement leaves out
The judge’s August 10 order on the cases that keep going names two groups the settlement does not cover. One group is left out because of when they started their lawsuit. The other is left out because of how long passed between their last Depo-Provera shot and their meningioma diagnosis. The order does not give the exact cutoff dates or the exact number of years. Those sit in the confidential agreement.
A third rule concerns the paperwork route. Women who signed with a lawyer on or before June 11, 2026 and who qualify can file on a separate settlement docket the court set up. The cases of women who signed later, or who do not qualify, go on the regular docket and follow the rules for cases that keep going.
Those rules are strict. A woman whose case continues has 90 days to hand over her injection records, her diagnosis records, a fact sheet and expert reports. The judge has said a case that misses those steps after a 30-day warning can be dismissed for good. If your case is one of the ones that continues, ask your lawyer which of those deadlines applies to you.
What has happened recently
- , the lead lawyers told the court that settlement sign-ups are open and close November 30. Their written status report is where the deadline comes from. The same report gave the court’s own count: 6,451 cases covering 6,775 women as of October 15.
- , Pfizer filed new papers asking the court to end the cases outside the settlement. Pfizer built them on the FDA’s own files about the label, released September 25. The women’s lawyers have until October 30 to answer. More on Pfizer’s argument.
- , the federal count reached 6,412. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation reported 6,412 pending cases, up from 6,403 in September and 6,294 in August.
- , the judge heard the science arguments in Pensacola. Each side asked her to keep the other side’s medical experts away from a jury. She said a written ruling would follow. None has come.
- , the court opened a separate docket for settlement business. Order 18 keeps the settlement paperwork apart from the cases that keep going. Most new cases now go there.
- , the judge appointed the rest of the settlement team. Orders 15, 16 and 17 named the person who divides the supplemental fund, the accountant who holds the money, and the firm that handles insurer and Medicare liens.
- , the judge set the rules for cases that stay outside the settlement. Case Management Order 14 names the two groups the settlement leaves out and sets the records and deadlines for every case that continues. Who the settlement leaves out.
- , the judge gave the public outline of the settlement. Case Management Order 12 says the two sides expect roughly 80 percent of federal plaintiffs to qualify. It says registration should finish in November and payments should start by the first quarter of 2027. The same order canceled the December test trial.
- , Pfizer and the lead lawyers announced the settlement. It covers most of the federal cases and the New York state cases. The amount was never made public.
The court appointed the settlement team
A settlement of this size is run by outside professionals, who handle the money and the paperwork. The judge appoints them, and those appointments are public. Over five weeks, Judge M. Casey Rodgers made four of them.
- August 5, Case Management Order 13: BrownGreer was appointed settlement administrator. BrownGreer is the firm that will process claims.
- September 4, Order 15: Matt Garretson of Garretson, LLC was appointed to decide how a supplemental compensation fund gets divided.
- September 4, Order 16: Randall Sansom, an accountant, was appointed to hold and manage the settlement money itself.
- September 4, Order 17: BrownGreer was also appointed to handle liens. Those are the claims that health insurers and Medicare make against a settlement payment.
On September 15, in Order 18, the court opened a separate docket just for settlement business. That keeps the administration paperwork apart from the ongoing litigation. A separate order on August 28 set out how the lawyers who did the shared work on the cases will be paid.
With the team in place and sign-ups open, the settlement has moved from an announcement to a working process. The court record still does not say who qualifies or when payments start.
Pfizer’s new push to end the cases outside the settlement
Some cases will stay out of the settlement. For those, Pfizer is pressing an argument called federal preemption. The FDA controls what a drug label says. Pfizer argues the FDA would not have let it add the warning these lawsuits say was missing, so federal law blocks the claims.
On October 14, Pfizer filed new papers built on the FDA’s own internal files. The FDA released those files on September 25 in answer to a public records request. They cover two FDA decisions about the Depo-Provera label.
- November 2024: the FDA turned down Pfizer’s request to add a meningioma warning. Pfizer says the files show the agency’s own scientists found the studies too weak.
- December 2025: the FDA approved a narrower warning. It says meningiomas have been reported after repeated shots, mostly with long-term use.
Pfizer’s main request is about timing. It says the 2025 warning rested on a study and a European label decision that both came out in September 2024. So Pfizer asks the court to throw out claims that arose before then. Its backup date is July 2024.
Pfizer also asks the court to end every case, whatever the date. Pfizer says the women want a stronger warning than the one the FDA approved, and federal law blocks a state-law claim that demands one.
The women’s lawyers have until October 30 to answer. The judge will set an in-person hearing after that. Nothing has been decided.
The science hearing happened, and no ruling has come
Running alongside the settlement is an argument about the science. Pfizer asked the court to rule that the plaintiffs' medical experts should not be allowed to testify that Depo-Provera causes meningioma. The plaintiffs asked the court to exclude Pfizer's experts for the same kind of reason. Both sides finished filing their papers on August 7.
Judge Rodgers held that hearing on September 18, 2026, in Pensacola. Experts testified, the lawyers argued, and the judge said a written order would follow. As of October 17 the court has not ruled. A judge can take weeks or months on a question this size.
The court picked three cases to go first, as tests of how the rest might fare. Those three are still moving. In early October, Pfizer asked the court to throw out all three because, it says, they were filed too late. The women in those cases have 14 days to answer each request.
On September 24 the judge replaced the fall status conferences with written updates. The first came in on October 16, and it is where the November 30 sign-up deadline comes from. The next two are due November 20 and December 14.
How many cases there are
The federal court counted 5,830 cases at the start of July. That rose to 6,294 in August, 6,403 in September and 6,412 in October, according to the monthly reports of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
The court’s own count runs a little higher. As of October 15 it showed 6,451 cases covering 6,775 women, since some cases name more than one woman.
Most new cases now go to the separate docket the court opened for settlement business. Since mid-September, 37 new cases went there, and 3 went to the regular one.
Every woman in the federal cases has to send proof that she got the shots and proof of her diagnosis. As of October 15, 189 cases had been sent to the judge because those papers were missing or still incomplete after notice. Another 1,117 were still under review. If you have a case, ask your lawyer whether your proof has been accepted.
Cases are also pending in state courts. The largest groups are 382 in Delaware, 145 in New York, 121 in California and 74 in Minnesota.
Two clocks are running: the November 30 sign-up date and your state’s filing deadline. State law sets the second one, and for most people it has been running since diagnosis. Waiting for the settlement terms pauses neither. A free review checks both dates against your own injection and diagnosis records.
Get a Free Depo-Provera Case Review Before November 30Educational purposes only. Submitting the form on Lawsuit Center does not create an attorney-client relationship.
What to watch next
- November 30, 2026, the deadline to register for the settlement program.
- The written settlement terms, which would set out who is eligible and how much.
- The women’s answer to Pfizer’s new preemption papers, due about October 30, and the hearing date after it.
- Rulings on Pfizer’s requests to throw out the three test cases as filed too late.
- The ruling on the expert evidence from the September 18 hearing.
- The next written status updates, due November 20 and December 14.
This page gets rewritten when those land. The main Depo-Provera page carries the medical and background material that does not change month to month.
How this page fits with the main Depo-Provera page
This page tracks what is happening in court. The main Depo-Provera lawsuits page explains what the cases claim, what a meningioma is, and what records people tend to gather. If you are new to this, start there and come back here for the current status.
Sources
- Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, monthly distribution of pending MDL dockets, July–October 2026.
- Case Management Order No. 12, July 27, 2026 (settlement outline, December trial canceled), and Case Management Order No. 14, August 10, 2026 (ongoing litigation, groups outside the settlement).
- Docket of In re: Depo-Provera (Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate) Products Liability Litigation, MDL 3140, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, case management orders and scheduling orders, August 5 through October 16, 2026.
- Plaintiffs’ Leadership Status Updates with the Data Administration Subcommittee report and BrownGreer data update, ECF No. 775, filed October 16, 2026.
- Pfizer’s Second Supplemental Brief in Support of Its Motion for Summary Judgment Based on Federal Preemption, ECF No. 774, filed October 14, 2026, and the court’s orders at ECF Nos. 773 and 776.
Find Out If You May Have a Case
If you received Depo-Provera injections and were later diagnosed with a meningioma, a free case review can look at your injection history, your diagnosis date and your records. With sign-ups closing November 30, it can tell you what your situation looks like now.
Free and no obligation. Submitting a request does not create an attorney-client relationship.
