This thread inspired by the $250M award in the vioxx case.
This is an individual suit. If a class action were launched, does that negate individual suits? I’d guess that nothing would be retroactive but would future individual claims be denied?
It depends 
Does the individual case have a separate cause of action? If so, then the class action probably will not negate the individual suit. But if the individual were to file a separate suit that stated the same cause of action, the defendant could file a motion to join the suits, and so they would become one.
Future claims are generally taken into account in class action lawsuits (see the asbestos lawsuits for a stellar example of this – a pot of money has been set up to take care of future claims that may arise because of the length of time that asbestos can affect your health). If the are not taken into account in the original lawsuit, future claims may be denied if they are about the same cause of action. Basically the claimant would have missed their chance when the original lawsuit came about. But, if the future claim was based on an incident that happened after the original lawsuit, or the claim was different enough to be seen as a different cause of action (and lawyers can get very creative) then the new suit can go forward.
Please let me know if that’s not clear.
Yes, which is why in class actions (at least in actions for money damages, like this would be), the class representative has to give notice to all effected class members (or as many as is practicable), who can then opt out of the class litigation if they think they can get a better result on their own. Opt-out are not bound by the result of the class litigation and do not share in the result if there’s a payout at the end (due to judgment or settlement).
With a $250M judgment for one plaintiff, though, there may be so many opt-outs that a class isn’t feasable. Normall class actions are useful because by aggregating lots of small claims you can get a lawyer interested who couldn’t otherwise afford to put on a case for the chump change damage award that is the best possible result. One dude getting this kind of absurd judgment means that plaintiff’s lawyers will be happy to take Vioxx cases indivually.
–Cliffy