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May 24, 2013 ~ A meeting in Charleston, West Virginia yesterday, where about 20,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been consolidated, yielded an tentative tolling agreement.
Under law, a tolling agreement suspends for a period of time, the statute of limitations. In this case, the July, 2013 two-year statute of limitations date will be extended a number of months. That means potential plaintiffs who think it may be too late to file a case against any of the five mesh makers will have extra time to file.
The ruling was issued to avoid a log jam of mass filings in the federal court by those trying to make some deadline.
If you are thinking of filing a case with one of the law firms involved in litigation here, it is suggested to fill out the necessary papers to move it along. The website has a listing of the rulings and the various law firms involved. These are likely the firms of trial lawyers who do the legwork to prepare a case.
Smaller firms may eventually pass your case to one of these larger firms.
Judge Joseph Goodwin
Multidistrict litigation (MDL) allows for cases from all over the country to be heard by one judge, in this case The Honorable Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, to allow for consistent rulings so cases can move through the courts more quickly. They can still be tried individually but the MDL addresses all of the housework such as depositions and the filing of motion that precedes an actual jury trial.
The five defendants are Ethicon (Johnson & Johnson), C.R. Bard, American Medical Systems, Boston Scientific and Coloplast.
Here is the So. District of West Virginia website and the number of cases filed as of May 22, 2013.
MDL No. 2187 C.R. Bard, Inc. with 3,349 cases filed.
MDL No. 2325 American Medical Systems (AMS), Inc. with 6,781 cases filed.
MDL No. 2326 Boston Scientific, Inc. with 4,157 cases filed.
MDL No. 2327 Ethicon, Inc. with 6,550 cases filed
MDL No. 2387 Coloplast Corp. with 420 cases filed.
TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES FILED IN FEDERAL COURT IN WV = 21,257
