Covidien Mesh Lawyers to Meet With MDL Judge This Week, Following Landmark Verdict

Court is expected to discuss the plans for additional bellwether trials, which are designed to help gauge how juries are likely to respond to evidence in thousands of claims and promote Covidien hernia mesh settlement talks.

In the wake of a massive $88 million verdict in the first federal bellwether trial, the U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Covidien mesh lawsuits will meet with plaintiffs’ and defense lawyers later this week to discuss what the verdict may mean for the remaining claims.

Covidien and its parent company, Medtronic, currently face more than 2,400 product liability lawsuits alleging that its line of hernia mesh implants, including the Symbotex, Parietex, ProGrip and others, are defectively designed and prone to failure, adhesions, recurring hernias and the need for revision surgery.

Each of those claims raise similar allegations indicating the manufacturers knew, or should have known about serious complications with Covidien mesh, yet failed to provide doctors or patients with adequate warnings and did not correct their designs when evidence indicated something was wrong. Instead, plaintiffs claim the companies chose to prioritize profits over patient safety.

Due to common issues of fact and law, all federal Covidien mesh lawsuits are consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is being overseen by U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

As part of those proceedings, Judge Saris has ordered attorneys for both sides to prepare a series of bellwether trials, with the goal of seeing how juries respond to evidence and testimony that would arise repeatedly throughout the majority of claims.

Covidien Mesh Trial Conference

In a text-only order posted to the court docket on August 7, Judge Saris called for Covidien mesh lawyers to meet with her for a remote status conference on August 19.

The order follows a landmark result in the first Covidien mesh lawsuit bellwether trial, which involved claims brought by Larry Patterson, who filed a complaint in 2017 alleging that a Symbotex mesh implanted during a hernia repair surgery adhered to his bowels after the collagen layer failed. As a result, Patterson indicated he suffered bowel obstructions, a recurring hernia, and had to undergo multiple surgical procedures to remove the failed mesh and address the intestinal damage it caused.

Following a three-week trial that ended earlier this month, a federal jury ordered Covidien and Medtronic to pay Patterson and his wife a total of $88 million in compensatory damages. However, the jury declined to award punitive damages against the manufacturers.

Although the verdict is not binding on other Covidien mesh lawsuits, it represents a significant early victory for plaintiffs and could influence future settlement negotiations.

Additional bellwether trials are expected, but none have been scheduled to date. If lawyers are unable to reach a Covidien mesh settlement or other resolution through the bellwether process, Judge Saris could begin remanding large numbers of claims back to their originating federal district courts for individual trial dates.

Hernia Mesh Lawsuit Settlement

Covidien is not the only manufacturer facing hernia mesh claims. C.R. Bard is currently named in more than 25,000 similar hernia mesh lawsuits, which have been centralized in a separate MDL before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus in the Southern District of Ohio.

In October 2025, Bard reached a hernia mesh settlement intended to resolve a substantial portion of the pending litigation. However, the agreement did not prevent new lawsuits from being filed by patients whose complications were diagnosed later or whose implants only recently began to fail, sometimes years after the original hernia repair.

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