How to Look Up Your Pelvic Mesh Case

Mesh Medical Device News Desk, January 2, 2017 ~ Many of you already know how to look up your pelvic mesh case filed in federal court. Here is a step-by-step way to find it through a Google Search.

This applies only to the cases consolidated in multidistrict litigation in the Southern District of WV. Your editor is not a lawyer so always follow the advice of your law firm.

Welcome to 2017!

This is the first story filed in the new year and it comes from a woman who was having trouble looking up her case in multidistrict litigation in Charleston, WV.

That was the jurisdiction chosen as a home for the thousands of pelvic mesh cases that have been filed so far in one federal court. There were so many in this Mass Tort, that it was decided by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to form a MDL court to handle all of the rulings so they could be consistent.

So if you are filed here, and many cases are, here's what you need to know:

First- Go to the MDL, Southern District of West Virginia here. http://www.wvsd.uscourts.gov/

Now - Scroll down to the middle lower half of the page. You will see Multidistrict Litigation box.

Click - On your manufacturer. You will need to know this. Do you have your medical records? If not, please obtain them. You must keep a copy of all of your records. Do not hand the entire thing onto your law firm. Keep your own copy.

Click - On your manufacturer, let’s say C.R. BARD.

See- The Numerical list of Cases in the small red print up top? Click on that. It opens up to list 14,799 cases. Total closed as of today January 2, 2017 is 6,602.

Click- On the Search in the upper right hand corner.

Put in the last name you are searching, say Smith. Click Search.

You should see all of the Smith plaintiffs listed. The information includes your case number, the date your case was filed. The defendant. the originating district case number, for example if you filed in Western Missouri, the case number was different in state court. And if applicable, the date your case was closed.

That’s it!!

If you need to look up your case further, you can get a PACER account (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) which is a government site allowing access to your federally filed cases. See PACER here. Cost is about 10 cents a page, unless it’s a court order in which case that is free.
https://www.pacer.gov/

Also if you go back to So District of WV you can find in small red print at the top of the page under Orders and see what Orders Judge Goodwin has issued concerning your manufacturer.

Back to C.R. Bard, we see Pretrial Order #232 was issued December 15, 2016 and it is a request by the law firm Motly Rice to enter an Order before the court for a Confidential Master Settlement Agreement between Defendant Covidien and Plaintiffs’ Counsel.