May 8, 2012 — The first bellwether trial against C.R. Bard, the company responsible for thousands of transvaginal mesh injuries, has been set for February 5, 2013. The federal trial is set before Chief Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, and it will take place in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
C.R. Bard is facing a Multidistrict Litigation (MDL), which involves about 600 individual cases that have been consolidated before one federal judge. An MDL is not the same as a class-action lawsuit, because each case remains individual. All of the cases involved in this litigation involve a similar set of injuries, issues, and parties.
In an MDL, bellwether cases are selected because they involve issues that are common to other claims in the litigation. The selected cases will be tried before a jury, and the decisions that are made set a precedent for deciding the rest of the individual cases in the MDL.
C.R. Bard is the maker of several types of transvaginal mesh medical devices, which are intended to be implanted in a woman who has weakened pelvic muscles. The mesh acts like a “sling” to reinforce the muscles, which can treat some types of incontinence, and also prevents abdominal organs from prolapsing into the vagina.
Unfortunately, after the transvaginal mesh devices were implanted in more than 300,000 women, evidence began to grow that severe complications were very common. The FDA issued several public health warnings, to inform the public that they received several thousand adverse event reports from women who suffered severe complications.
Complications of the transvaginal mesh include erosion of the device into the abdomen, organ perforation, infection, bleeding, problems with sexual intercourse, vaginal scarring, chronic pain, and more.
Many women who were injured by this device are angry, because they believe that C.R. Bard rushed the transvaginal mesh product to market without conducting clinical trials to establish safety or effectiveness. By law, medical devices that claim to be based on an older approved device do not need to conduct clinical safety studies. C.R. Bard based their transvaginal mesh design on a defective device from Boston Scientific that was voluntarily recalled in 1999.
Do I have a Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuit?
Collen A. Clark is a true advocate for his clients and is passionate about helping Texans that have been injured or wronged.
Collen’s amazing success in the courtroom and well known dedication to his clients has earned him the recognition of his peers as one of The Top Trial Lawyers in Texas.”
The Clark Firm has assembled a team of trial lawyers with more than 100 years experience, participation in over 600 jury trials and $60 million in verdicts and/or settlements. Please use the form below to contact us for a free Transvaginal Mesh lawsuit review.