Lawyers for Covidien Hernia Mesh Lawsuits to Meet with Judge for Initial Status Conference

The U.S. District Judge recently appointed to preside over all federal Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits will meet with lawyers involved in the litigation this week, for an initial status conference to discuss and organize the coordinated pretrial proceedings.

There are currently dozens of product liability lawsuits filed against Medtronic and it’s Covidien subsidiary in U.S. District Courts nationwide, each raising similar allegations that painful and debilitating complications were caused be a defective design used for certain polypropylene mesh products sold in recent years, including Covidien Parietex, Covidien Symbotex and others.

As hernia mesh lawyers continue to review and file claims over the coming weeks and months, the size of the litigation is expected to increase rapidly. Therefore, all claims have been centralized for pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris in the District Judge in Massachusetts, for coordinated discovery and a series of early trial dates.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) established the centralized Covidien hernia mesh MDL in June 2022, and Judge Saris initially planned to meet with the parties last month, but the initial status conference was rescheduled for Wednesday, August 17 at 2:30 pm.

As part of the coordinated management of the litigation, it is expected that Judge Saris will appoint a small group of lawyers in the Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits to serve in various leadership positions, taking certain actions during discovery and pretrial proceedings that benefit each plaintiff.

The Court is also expected to establish a “bellwether” process, where a group of representative cases will be prepared for early trial dates to help the parties gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of their claims, and how juries are likely to respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

While the outcomes of these bellwether trials will not be binding on other plaintiffs, they may help drive the parties toward settlements that would avoid the need for hundreds of individual trials to be held.

At least three other hernia mesh MDLs are already established for claims involving other polyethylene products sold by other companies, with more than 15,400 Bard hernia mesh lawsuits centralized in the Southern District of Ohio, 3,600 Ethicon Physiomesh lawsuits centralized in the Northern District of Georgia and 3,251 Atrium C-Qur lawsuits centralized in the District of New Hampshire.