The litigation of the vaginal mesh lawsuits consolidated into multidistrict litigation (MDL) in West Virginia seemed to be proceeding quite satisfactorily. After encountering some obstacles with the declaration of a mistrial, things are back on track with a new jury chosen in the first MDL trial against Bard. Judge Joseph Goodwin, the presiding judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, has already set aside dates for the hearing of the other MDL involving other vaginal mesh manufacturers.

After the completion of the bellwether cases involving the vaginal mesh lawsuits filed against C.R. Bard, the hearings of the claims against Boston Scientific and Ethicon, Inc. will follow next. The first bellwether case against Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has been slated for trial on August of next year.

Judge Joseph Goodwin on August 29, 2013 issued a court order scheduling the trial dates of the bellwether cases for Boston Scientific. This will represent the first four lawsuits of the 5,938 vaginal mesh lawsuits filed in federal courts. 

This order would have been released earlier if not for the issues relating to the choices of the bellwether cases. Judge Goodwin expressed dissatisfaction on the choices of both parties to represent as bellwether cases as submitted on August 1, 2013.

In a pretrial order, the presiding judge said he was not satisfied with the selections made by both parties. There were multi-product picks from the plaintiffs while the defendants chose cases with potential statute of limitations issues. The choices made by the plaintiffs were not representative of the class since there were complications such as Alzheimer’s disease, vaginal obliteration, participation in drug studies, and infertility issues.

After laying down the guidelines for choosing the bellwether cases, an order was issued by the court on August 29, 2013 naming the four plaintiffs and lining up the dates for the hearing of these cases. The first trial will be heard on February 11, 2013 followed by a June 17 date and a September 9 trial if necessary.

Chosen by Judge Goodwin were the claims of Carol Lynn Fawcett, Roseanne Sanchez, Carolyn F. Smothers, and Katherine L. Hall. Specific Boston Scientific products involved in these cases are the Pinnacle and Obtryx vaginal mesh implants.

Still to be scheduled are the lawsuits lodged against Coloplast and Cook Medical. The lawsuits against American Medical Systems may have to be rescheduled in view of the settlement offered by the company to a single law firm handled by a Houston-based lawyer who had filed lawsuits in both state and federal courts.

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