First Bard Hernia Mesh Bellwether Jury Trial Rescheduled To April 2021

First Bard Hernia Mesh Bellwether Jury Trial Rescheduled To April 2021

Introduction

The first bellwether jury trial of Bard hernia mesh lawsuit has been rescheduled to begin on April 19, 2021, by the U.S. District Judge considering the ongoing pandemic.

Currently, there are more than 8,000 product liability litigations against C.R. Bard over its products such as Bard Ventralight, Bard Ventralex, Bard Perfix, Bard 3DMax, and other similar mesh systems. Each lawsuit alleges the company of selling defective products in the market, which has resulted in plaintiffs suffering from painful and debilitating complications.

The mesh products named in the lawsuits contain polypropylene material, which can easily break, shrink or wear off. This often leads to device migration, organ perforation, infection, and several other complications. Lawsuits allege the defective design of the hernia mesh often required the patients to undergo additional correction surgeries.

Plaintiffs allege that the design of polypropylene mesh is faulty that results in severe abdominal pain, infections, adhesions, erosion, and other complications. It further requires additional surgery to get rid of the malfunctioned hernia patch.

U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus is presiding over all hernia mesh lawsuits pending throughout the federal court system centralized in the Southern District of Ohio for coordinated discovery and a common outcome for all the trials.

Trials were originally expected to begin in May 2020, but the increasing COVID-19 pandemic risk in the United States resulted in the revision of the trial dates to September 29, 2020, followed by another delay to January 2021. As per the November 23rd case management order, Judge Sargus has rescheduled the first bellwether jury trial to April 19, 2021, following the two final pretrial conferences slated for March 24 and April 1.

The judge has even urged the parties to use technology wherever possible to avoid the exposure of COVID-19. He has also advised the parties to use electronic courtroom technology for the presentation of evidence.