Covidien Hernia Mesh Lawsuit

After rejecting an earlier request to consolidate the litigation in 2020, this is the second time that the panel will decide whether to create a Covidien mesh lawsuit MDL.

The U.S. The U.S.

A request to create a Covidien Mesh MSDL in June 2020 was rejected by the panel. The panel found that there were not enough cases to warrant formal pretrial proceedings in federal courts. The manufacturer says that the number of claims is “increasingly ballooning”, with at most 73 lawsuits pending in seven U.S. District Courts.

Each of the Covidien hernia-mesh lawsuits raises similar questions of fact or law. The manufacturer asked that the litigation be centralized in front of one U.S. district judge to prevent duplicative discovery of common issues in claims, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings, and increase judicial efficiency.

Review of cases involving different types of hernia repair products.Examine a Case

Covidien, filed a renewed motion to the U.S. JPML in February calling for consolidation of hernia-mesh cases. It indicated that it was unable in 2020 to disclose that tolling agreements had been in place with over 6,000 claimants. The parties agreed to delay filing lawsuits and to try to negotiate hernia-mesh settlements. According to the company, there are a lot of complaints being filed in federal and state courts across the country as tolling agreements expire.

Complex product liability litigation is where many claims are filed in federal court by people who have suffered similar injuries from the same or similar products. It is common for federal courts to centralize pretrial proceedings.

Covidien asks that all hernia mesh cases pending or brought forward in the future through federal courts be transferred to the U.S. District Court of the District of Massachusetts. All but six cases are being pursued.

The JPML published a Notice Of Hearing Session (PDF) April 14 in which it announced that oral arguments will be heard on the creation of a Covidien mesh multidistrict litigation on May 26 at the Joseph F. Weis Jr. U.S. Pittsburgh Courthouse, Pennsylvania.

At least three additional hernia-mesh MDLs have been established for claims involving polyethylene products. These include more than 15,400 Bard hernia lawsuits centralized within the Southern District of Ohio and 3,600 Ethicon Ethicon Physiomesh lawsuits located in the Northern District of Georgia. There are also 3,251 Atrium Claims C-Qur lawsuits located in the District of New Hampshire.

If the Covidien Mesh lawsuits are approved for consolidation, it is likely that the U.S. District judge will choose a few representative cases to be tried early. This is to gauge how juries might respond to evidence concerning the alleged design flaws in products such as Covidien Parietex and Covidien Symbotex.

Although the bellwether trials’ outcomes will not be binding upon other plaintiffs, it may drive them to settlements that would eliminate the need for hundreds more individual trials.

from lawyers.buzz https://lawyers.buzz/covidien-hernia-mesh-lawsuit/
via IFTTT