In a status conference held last week, Judge Edmund A. Sargus, overlooking the Bard hernia mesh MDL, issued a pretrial order, which included a prediction made by plaintiff lawyers that roughly 3,000 claims would be filed in the federal MDL by the end of 2019.
Judge Sargus had previously allowed the direct filing of claims into the federal MDL to streamline the process. In a separate case management order issued on March 8, Judge Sargus outlined the form procedure and schedule for 12 plaintiffs who were selected for the bellwether pool to complete Plaintiff Fact Sheets (PFS), to be submitted by March 25, 2019. The next status conference has been scheduled for April 17, 2019, where the parties will meet the court to discuss further proceedings. Bellwether trials will probably begin on May 8, July 13, and September 14, next year, when the parties will observe how the jury will respond to certain evidence and testimony which will be repeated throughout the litigation.
Bard hernia mesh lawsuits, filed over complaints of debilitating complications caused due to defective mesh design, are centralized in the Southern District of Ohio as part of multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2846; In Re: Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation) for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
