Transvaginal mesh manufacturer C.R. Bard reportedly will settle over 500 of its pending vaginal mesh lawsuits for over $21 million dollars, according to Bloomberg News, which cited anonymous sources “familiar with the accords”. C.R. Bard is a defendant in more than 12,000 lawsuits in federal court which have been consolidated into MDL 2187 in the Southern District of West Virginia before the Honorable Judge Joseph R. Goodwin.
Bard manufactured several mesh implants. Its best selling product line, Avaulta, was withdrawn from the market in July 2012 in response to the Food & Drug Administration’s order in July of 2011 requiring manufacturers to complete additional safety testing to keep their products on the market. In 2013 documents unsealed by Judge Goodwin showed that Bard had intentionally used a plastic resin in its mesh products that it knew was unsafe and unfit for human implantation. Bard lost one trial in the summer of 2013, and settled a second case just before the trial began.
Judge Goodwin can be credited with pushing the parties towards this settlement. He has an enormous docket of over 60,000 defective mesh cases in front of him as he is assigned to the MDLs for all 7 mesh manufacturers. Some cases have been pending for more than 4 years. In August Judge Goodwin issued an extraordinary order that Bard begin preparing 500 cases for trial, with short deadlines for depositions, expert reports, and pretrial motions. At the conclusion of that four month time period he would begin sending cases back for trial to the federal districts they had been transferred from.
The settlements reportedly resolve the inventories of several attorneys (Thornton Law Firm is not part of this settlement.) Bard, which announced in its July regulatory filings that more than 12,390 cases are pending against the company, would be settling these 500 claims for an average of about $43,000 per claim.
Transvaginal mesh implants have failed many women who have received them. Some conditions associated with mesh failure include bleeding, incontinence, infection, severe pain, bladder obstruction, chronic vaginal discharge, pain during sexual intercourse, mesh erosion, even organ perforation and death. For many women even removal of the implant does not end the pain it causes. If you received a transvaginal mesh implant and believe you have suffered complications, contact your doctor immediately. If you need legal advice about your transvaginal mesh implant, the Boston vaginal mesh attorney team at Thornton Law Firm will give you a free, completely confidential evaluation of your legal rights. Call our toll free number 888-341-1405 or tell us your story here.
