First Three Bard Hernia Mesh Trials to be Scheduled for 2020

As thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh lawsuits pend in the federal court system, the U.S. district judge in change of the Bard federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) recently outlined the process for selecting several trial dates as part of the court’s “bellwether” process.  

Currently over 3,500 injury lawsuits are filed in the federal courts against C.R. Bard, the infamous medical device manufacturer. These lawsuits, filed by injured patients, allege similar claims that Bard’s polypropylene hernia mesh implants are dangerously defective and contributed to patients’ severe injuries, complications, and pain & suffering. Patients describe experiencing debilitating complications following hernia repair surgery with models of Bard mesh products including Bard Ventralex, Bard Perfix, and Bard Compsix.

With thousands of individuals raising similar questions of fact and law in these claims, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) decided to centralize all federal Bard hernia mesh lawsuits as part of a multidistrict litigation. These cases, centralized in the Southern District of Ohio, will go through coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings, which include a series of early trial dates scheduled to begin in 2020.

In recent case management order, U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus outlined how the court will select the first three cases for these early trial dates, which are set to begin in May, July, and September of 2020.

These first few cases are to be selected from a group of six “bellwether discovery” claims, which have already been prepared for trial. These cases are meant to be representative of allegations individuals frequently repeated throughout the thousands of Bard hernia mesh claims.

Judge Sargus further elaborated that the Court will select three cases from this small pool of cases after parties on either side submit briefings that summarize their recommendations for which cases juries should see first. Parties are to submit their recommendations by January 3, 2020, and the final cases will be selected in a status conference to be held on January 10.

The selected cases are set to begin on the following dates:

• May 11, 2020
• July 13, 2020
• September 14, 2020

While these first cases to go to trial do not set a precedence for future Bard hernia mesh trials, they do indicate how the juries may react to evidence brought forth during the trials. If the parties fail to reach a settlement for the Bard hernia mesh lawsuits pending in the federal courts, each claim may be remanded back into the courts they were originally field in for future individual trial dates.

HERINIA MESH INJURY? TALK WITH US TODAY

If you underwent hernia repair surgery and were injured by your hernia mesh implant, you need to speak with an attorney immediately. Thousands of individuals are finding their extreme complications and suffering were caused by defective Bard hernia mesh products.