With more than 13,800 lawsuits stacked up, NJ Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee has to do something. So, once again, she’s proposing four simultaneous trials writes The Star-Ledger of New Jersey (which owns Pharmalot). She attempted the same feat last year, but a host of scheduling issues - and Merck’s objections - nixed the idea.

The goal, of course, is to ease the logjam. With so many lawsuits, it’s entirely possible that many of the Vioxx plaintiffs will never see their day in court, or collect if they do win, because Merck is appealing every outcome that doesn’t go its way. For this reason, Wall Street believes Merck’s Vioxx liability is $5 billion, not the $25 billion or more that many once estimated.

Under Higbee’s plan, which has been discussed in conference meetings with lawyers involved in the cases, three other judges would be assigned to preside over the additional trials. All four trials are scheduled to begin Jan. 22 at the Atlantic City courthouse. During the past two years, Higbee has presided over just four trials. Another 14,000 suits are in federal court.

Rutgers Law professor Bernard Bell says something has to be done to move things along. “It would be pretty unusual,” he says, “for mass tort litigation to proceed one case at a time without some effort to consolidate the proceedings.”

Plaintiff’s attorney Jerry Kristal says he’s seen judges assigned to mass tort asbestos cases in New York consolidate as many as 50 plaintiffs into one trial. The idea of four simultaneous trials is just another variation.

But Theodore Mayer, an attorney with Hughes, Hubbard and Reed who is leading Merck’s defense, says the structure Higbee proposes is likely to evolve over the coming months. While recognizing the overall the burden on the court, the defense has opposed hearing multiple cases at the same time. “We feel very strongly that jus tice in each case should not be affected by the large number of cases,” says Mayer. In other words, Merck will try to slow down the train.