NJ Ethicon Proceed & Prolene Mesh Cases May Get MCL Status

NJ Ethicon Proceed & Prolene Mesh Cases May Get MCL Status

Introduction

The New Jersey Supreme Court announced plans to establish a new consolidation program for all hernia mesh lawsuits filed in the state to include all lawsuits involving Ethicon Proceed and Prolene products and will be deciding whether the cases must be centralized before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings.

In a notice issued in December 2018, Glenn A. Grant, the Acting Administrative Director of the Courts, indicated that the court received a request for the formation of a Multicounty Litigation (MCL) for all Ethicon Proceed surgical mesh, Proceed Ventral and Prolene Hernia Mesh System lawsuits file in New Jersey. The request sought to centralize and consolidate the hernia mesh cases before one New Jersey judge to avoid duplicate discovery, conflicts in pretrial rulings, and for the convenience of common witnesses and parties. The plaintiffs proposed that the cases be tried out of either Atlantic, Middlesex or Bergen counties, Middlesex being their preferred venue.

Currently, there are more than 2,000 hernia mesh lawsuits pending before Judge Richard Story in the federal multidistrict litigation ( MDL No. 2782; In Re: Ethicon Physiomesh Flexible Composite Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.