Upcoming Mesh Trials Take a Slow Pace for the Injured

The following is a list of upcoming pelvic mesh-injury trials that will be heard this year.

This list is subject to change and likely will. Some will be added. Some will settle in advance of trial.

Regardless, with 74,522 product liability cases filed in this one court, consolidated in West Virginia, (as of today, April 7) bellwether cases gauge how juries will decide. They often form the foundation for settlement talks in advance of trial or before the case goes to the jury.

Many women and families are expressing an eagerness to attend these trials and other events.

Coming up:

April 23, 2015- Johnson & Johnson Annual Shareholders meeting, 10:30 am, State Theatre, 15 Livingstone Ave, New Brunswick, NJ

May 4, 2013 - Boston Scientific trial, (attorney Fred Thompson, Motley Rice)

May 18, 2015 - Toni Watkins v. Cook Inc., et al. 2:13-cv-20370, Charleston, WV, Judge Joseph Goodwin, bellwether case for Cook (attorney Doug Kreis, Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis, Overholtz). Surgisis Biodesign urethral sling. Dismissed by Plaintiff.

June 2, 2015 - Status Conference called by Judge Goodwin, Charleston WV

June 8, 2015 - Mary Hovey v. Cook Inc., et al. 2:13-cv-18900, Charleston, WV, Judge Joseph Goodwin, bellwether (attorney - Erin Copeland, Fibich, Hampton, Leebron, Briggs & Josephson). Surgisis tension-free urethral sling. Dismissed by Plaintiff.

[These are the first bellwether cases for Cook, the Indianapolis-based mesh manufacturer. Cook manufactures a transvaginal mesh made with pig intestines.

At this writing there are 380 cases filed against the Indianapolis-based company. The claim is that Cook’s SIS (Surgisis) product has a high recurrence rate and doesn’t work in a substantial number of women; that pig intestine leads to a latent inflammatory response in some women, infections and scarring leading to pain and dyspareunia in some women. Putting anything, much less an animal intestine, through a vaginal incision into a heavily-laden bacterial environment is a bad idea, the women claim.]

July 13, 2015 – Jennifer Ramirez v. Ethicon, Judge J. David Canales 2012-ci-18690 or 18650, 73rd Civil Division, San Antonio, TX

August 24, 2015 – Tonya Edwards v. Ethicon 2:12-cv-9972, Charleston, WV, Judge Goodwin bellwether against Johnson & Johnson (attorney - Mueller Law)

September 21, 2015 – Carol Cavness v. Ethicon (Prosima mesh) DC-14-04220, Judge Ken Molberg, Dallas (attorney - Blankenship Law and Freese and Goss). See here.

October 26, 2015 - Josephine Marie Rabiola v. Ethicon, 53rd Judicial District Court, Austin TX. Both the TVT-S and the Ethicon Prosima for POP. Case #D1 GN 13002039.

This tally does not include the various trials filed in state courts including Bard and Ethicon cases filed in Bergen Co. New Jersey.