Covidien Hernia Mesh Lawsuits Remain on Track for Feb. 2026 Trial Date

Parties are hopeful that the results of early bellwether trials next year will drive Covidien hernia mesh settlement negotiations in the litigation.

A magistrate judge presiding over more than 1,700 Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits pending in the federal court system has granted a request by the parties for more time to conduct expert witness discovery and prepare key motions in a group of bellwether cases, but the extension will not result in any delay of the first trial date, which is still expected to begin on February 17, 2026.

The first Covidien mesh trial will involve claims brought by Larry and Tammy Patterson, an Alabama couple who alleges that a defective Symbotex mesh implant caused a bowel obstruction, requiring surgical removal in 2020. However, it is one of several bellwether cases currently being prepared for early trial dates in the federal court system.

The Covidien hernia mesh bellwether cases raise nearly identical allegations to those presented in other product liability lawsuits filed in recent years against Covidien and its parent company, Medtronic, indicating that various different polypropylene mesh products sold in recent years contained dangerous design defects, which caused individuals throughout the U.S. to experience painful and debilitating complications.

Given common questions of fact and law presented throughout the litigation, a Covidien hernia mesh lawsuit MDL (multidistrict litigation) was established in 2022, centralizing all of the federal hernia mesh lawsuits before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris in the District of Massachusetts, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings. 

Over the past three years, the parties have been conducting general fact discovery, and preparing a small group of representative cases for early trial dates, known as bellwether trials, which are expected to involve evidence and testimony similar to what could be repeated throughout hundreds of other future cases.

Parties Call for Bellwether Deadline Extensions

In April, the Court released a pretrial schedule establishing several key deadlines leading up to the first Covidien hernia mesh bellwether trial. However, on July 28, the parties submitted a joint motion for an extension (PDF) of 30 days on many of those deadlines.

“The Parties believe good cause exists for a short extension of the existing deadlines to allow sufficient time for the Parties to complete expert depositions and prepare related summary judgment and/or Daubert motions. This short extension will not affect the February 2026 trial date.”

–Joint Motion for Extension of Dispositive and Expert Motion Deadlines

In a docket entry issued the next day, Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley approved the proposal, which pushes back the current close of expert discovery date, and sets a new deadline of September 8, 2025 for the parties to file dispositive and Daubert motions in the bellwether cases. Any oppositions to those motions are now due by October 13, with any further replies in support filed by October 27.

While the outcome of early mesh trials will not be binding on other plaintiffs, they will be closely watched to help the parties see how jurors may respond to a typical claim. Judge Saris hopes that the results of these trials will lead the parties to a Covidien hernia mesh settlement agreement, which will avoid the need for hundreds of individual cases to be set for trial.

After the bellwether trials have been completed, if no Covidien lawsuit settlement has been reached, then Judge Saris could begin remanding large numbers of cases back to their originating court for individual trial dates. There are also hundreds of additional lawsuits against Covidien pending in the Massachusetts state court system.