Series I: A.H. Robins Company Documents

Scope and content:

In 1975 a Multi-District Litigation Panel was set up to consolidate over one hundred Dalkon Shield personal injury tort cases pending in federal district courts in over a third of the states. The pretrial proceedings were held before U. S. District Judge Frank Theis in Wichita, Kansas. Bradley Post, a Wichita lawyer who had represented Connie Deemer, the first woman to win a verdict against Robins for her Dalkon Shield injuries, was chosen lead lawyer in the consolidated cases. Post led the court-ordered discovery proceedings that ran from 1976 through the late 1970s and resumed in 1981 and 1982.

AHR was ordered to produce copies of tens of thousands of documents and to store them at the Richmond offices of McGuire, Woods & Battle, the law firm handling its defense. The collection of documents became known as the Source Files. Documents in the following subject categories were requested, copied and numbered at various times from 1976 through 1982: Research & Development, Adverse Reaction, Manufacturing, Administration, Commercial, Government, International, FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and Bibliography.

In 1991, by administrative order, the Trust was directed to "maintain a document depository in Richmond, Virginia, containing substantially all documents which the Trust, using its best efforts, has identified as having been produced without qualification by Robins in pre-petition Dalkon Shield personal injury tort litigation." The depository, to be made accessible to claimants and their attorneys, was comprised of documents previously in the custody of McGuire, Woods and was located at Datastor, a facility on the east end of the city.

The A.H. Robins Company documents consist of the master group, the Source Files, produced under the direction of Judge Frank Theis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In addition, there are a number of subsets of the Source Files gathered and arranged by plaintiffs' attorneys, and additional documents produced under orders from other judges in the mid-1980s.

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Parent restrictions:

The Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust Collection was transferred to the University of Virginia Law Library by order of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in September 2000. Under that order, Series I through V are open for research with no restrictions. The Court imposed the following access restrictions for the materials in Series VI (the Trust's Central Records Library and Outside Counsel Files):

"5.01 Preservation of Claimants' Privacy. No Identifying Information, or any document or record within the Trust Materials containing Identifying information, relating to any Personal Injury Claimant --- or Other Claimant --- may be disclosed at any time, without written consent of the relevant Personal Injury Claimant or Other Claimant, or an Order by the Court allowing such disclosure."

The Court defined "Identifying Information" as the following:

"Identifying Information" means a person or entity's name, address, telephone number, facsimile number, email address, and any unique identifier including but not limited to a social security number, tax identification number, passport number, and military identification number."

Requests for material in Series VI should be made in advance to allow Special Collections staff time to determine whether it contains identifying information, and to allow for the redaction of such information before permitting access. Copying documents in Series VI may be restricted, and advance consideration of such requests is required.

Parent terms of access:

Multiple individuals and corporate bodies created the materials in the Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust collection and copyright status varies across the collection.

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust (DSCT) were transferred to the University of Virginia in 2000 by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division. Permission to publish or reproduce materials created by the DSCT must be secured from the University of Virginia.

Other materials may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. The University of Virginia is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce these items.

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