Paragard Injury Lawyers To Meet With MDL Court For Monthly Status Conferences Through End of Year

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all Paragard IUD injury lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system, which were recently consolidated for pretrial proceedings, has scheduled a series of status conferences throughout the rest of the year.

There are currently more than 200 product liability lawsuits brought in U.S. District Courts nationwide, each involving allegations that women suffered painful and debilitating Paragard IUD complications when the small birth control implant fractured or broke as doctors attempted to remove it. However, as Paragard injury lawyers continue to review and file cases in the coming months and years, it is ultimately expected that several thousand claims will be included in the litigation.

Paragard IUD is a T-shaped plastic device wrapped in copper, which is placed in the uterus to provide women long-acting protection against pregnancy for up to ten years. However, the procedure is designed to be reversible, allowing doctors to remove the IUD during an out-patient office procedure when they no longer want the birth control.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, consolidated pretrial proceedings were established in December 2020, transferring all pending and new cases filed throughout the federal court system to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin.

On June 15, Judge May issued a court order (PDF), which lays out a schedule of monthly status conferences to be held through out the year. Those conference dates include July 13, August 20, September 21, October 19, November 16 and December 14.

The order calls for parties to submit proposed agendas for the conferences at least three business days prior to those dates. In addition, the parties should submit any issues which require additional explanation within the same timeframe.

As part of the management of the litigation, it is expected that Judge May will establish a “bellwether” process, where a small group of representative claims will be prepared for early trial dates to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be presented throughout other cases.

While the outcome for these early trials would not be binding on other plaintiffs, they may facilitate negotiations to resolve the litigation and avoid the need for hundreds of cases to go before federal juries nationwide in future years.