No Update on Bard Hernia Mesh Settlement Talks Provided, As Deadline For Remand Proposals Loom

When the U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Bard hernia mesh lawsuits directed the parties to engage in formal mediation, lawyers were directed to notify the Court if they have hit an impasse in negotiations by May 24. However, that date has come and gone without any posted update on the Bard hernia mesh settlement talks, suggesting that the parties have agreed to continuing negotiating leading up to another deadline on June 24.

The negotiations seek to resolve more than 21,000 product liability lawsuits filed against Bard throughout the federal court system, each involving similar allegations that users suffered painful and debilitating injuries caused by design defects associated with various polypropylene products sold in recent years, including the Bard Ventralight, Bard Ventralex, Bard Perfix Plug, Bard 3DMax, and other similar systems.

Since August 2018, the hernia mesh lawsuits have been centralized before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus in the Southern District of Ohio, as part of a federal Bard hernia mesh multidistrict litigation, or MDL. To date, the parties have already held three early bellwether test trials to help determine how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that may be repeated throughout the claims. However, following mixed results, Judge Sargus canceled a planned fourth trial set to begin earlier this year, and ordered the parties to meet with a mediator for Bard hernia mesh settlement talks before he considers returning large numbers of claims to various different U.S. District Courts nationwide for trial.

Judge Sargus presided over the first Bard hernia mesh trial in August 2021, which resulted in a defense verdict for Bard. However, a second bellwether trial followed in April 2022, resulting in a $255,000 verdict, and the third resulted in a $500,000 verdict in November 2023.

Although the bellwether trials were designed to promote resolution of the litigation, large numbers of Bard hernia mesh settlements have not materialized, and thousands of individuals are still awaiting their day in court.

Update on Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuit Negotiations Not Reported

Judge Sargus scheduled a series of Bard hernia mesh lawsuit settlement talks to begin in March, and told the parties and the mediator that they should alert him to any potential impasse in the negotiations by May 24, unless they mutually agreed to extend the deadline.

To date, the court docket shows no signs that either side has filed a report indicating that such an impasse exists. However, another looming deadline requires the parties to submit a joint proposal, or individual proposals, for remanding cases back to different federal courts for trial by June 24, if they are unable to reach a Bard hernia mesh global settlement or plan for resolving large numbers of claims.

The court-ordered mediations were scheduled after the plaintiffs previously asked Judge Sargus to begin remanding Bard hernia mesh lawsuits for trial in December. However, at the time Judge Sargus said that plan was premature.

In January 2024, Judge Sargus indicated that the Court would like to see a three- or four-month period for global Bard hernia mesh settlement talks to be explored before setting the stage for returning cases to various different U.S. District Courts, allowing individual plaintiffs to present their cases before juries to determine the amount of financial compensation they may be entitled to receive.