The third bellwether trial concerning accusations that the Bard PerFix Plug is defectively built and caused unpleasant problems following hernia surgery has been rescheduled to begin on October 16, 2023, by the United States District Court presiding over all Bard hernia mesh litigation.
The case was scheduled to begin in May 2023, as the third in a series of early trial dates meant to assist the parties judge how jurors are likely to respond to specific evidence and testimony that would be duplicated across more than 18,000 claims filed against C.R. Bard in a federal MDL (multidistrict litigation).
The judge has already presided over two MDL bellwether trials, which ended with mixed results. The first case went before a jury in August 2021, resulting in a defense verdict for Bard. That trial was followed by a second bellwether case that went before a jury in April 2022, resulting in a $255,000 verdict.
In August 2022, a state court lawsuit in Rhode Island resulted in a $4.8 million verdict over Bard hernia mesh problems, which sent a strong signal to the manufacturer about the extent of liability it may face in certain cases, as each lawsuit goes before a jury.
Each hernia mesh complaint makes similar claims, claiming that people had difficulties with various polypropylene products offered in recent years, such as the Bard PerFix Plug, Bard Ventralight, Bard Ventralex, Bard 3DMax, and other similar systems.
Because the charges raise comparable factual and legal issues, the lawsuit has been centralized and consolidated before the U.S. District Court since August 2018, for coordinated discovery and pretrial procedures. Yet, as fresh hernia mesh claims are filed and the devices continue to fail, the size of the MDL grows.
