Direct Filing Into The MDL Granted For Atrium C-Qur Cases

Direct Filing Into The MDL Granted For Atrium C-Qur Cases

Introduction

U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty presiding over all Atrium hernia mesh lawsuits approved new procedures in a case management order issued on February 19, for the direct filing of cases into the multidistrict litigation (MDL) in New Hampshire.  

The order was issued to avoid the delay in transferring cases from different district courts. In addition, an order was issued on February 15, which sanctioned an extension request filed by parties to give them time until April 1, 2019, to select the group of cases to be included in the first bellwether trials. The bellwether will be useful in measuring how juries might respond to certain evidence and testimony throughout the litigation. Though the results of these bellwether trials will not bind on other claims, the process was designed to clear the path for potential hernia mesh settlements to avoid the possibilities of hundreds of individual trials in various U.S. District Courts.

More than 1,000 hernia mesh lawsuits are pending against Atrium in the federal court system, each raising similar allegations that the C-Qur mesh has design defects and was unreasonably dangerous, and increased the need of additional corrective surgeries to remove or replace the patch.