Deadline for Covidien Mesh Settlement Negotiations Extended Until Jan. 2026

Extension from the judge presiding over all federal Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits will not change the first bellwether trial date set for February 2026.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits has given lawyers involved in the litigation four more months to potentially reach a global settlement agreement through court-ordered mediation efforts, which could remove the need for a series of bellwether jury trials to be held early next year.

There are currently more than 2,000 product liability lawsuits being pursued in the federal court system against Covidien and its parent company, Medtronic, each raising similar allegations that various different polypropylene mesh products were sold in recent years that contained dangerous design defects, resulting in patients experiencing debilitating complications and often requiring revision surgery to remove the failed mesh.

The federal litigation was centralized for pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris in the District of Massachusetts in June 2022, as part of a Covidien mesh MDL (multidistrict litigation), to help coordinate discovery into common issues in the claims and prepare a small group of bellwether cases for early trial dates.

If a global settlement agreement is not reached to resolve the claims, Judge Saris has scheduled the first trial to begin in February 2026, to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

Leading up to the start of that first trial, Judge Saris directed lawyers to engage in a series of Covidien mesh settlement talks over the past year, to determine if a global resolution could be reached.

To allow final preparations for trial to commence, Judge Saris previously set a deadline of September 22, 2025 for mediation talks to be completed. However, in a joint motion (PDF) filed on August 6, the parties requested the judge extend the mediation deadline.

“The Parties believe good cause exists for an extension of the existing deadline to January 14, 2026, to allow sufficient time for the Parties to complete mediation. No prejudice will result from this extension because the Parties are not proposing to change the February 2026 trial date, or any trial-related dates.”

— Joint Motion for Extension of Mediation Completion Deadline

In a text-only order posted to the Court Docket on August 7, Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley granted the request.

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.