The Legal Examiner Affiliate Network The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner search instagram avvo phone envelope checkmark mail-reply spinner error close The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner
Skip to main content

Discovery deadlines have been set in IN RE: Bard IVC Filters Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2641). According to the Court’s December 22, 2016 Order, the final Bard IVC Bellwether Group 1 cases are scheduled to be chosen in late-April 2017 with the first jury trials beginning in the Fall of 2017.

Currently, hundreds of IVC filter lawsuits are pending in the U.S. District Court in Arizona with claims alleging the Bard devices are associated with high rates of fracture, migration and tilting, that can result in life-threatening complications. And now, after years of litigation, some of these injured plaintiffs will finally get their day in court.

In a multidistrict litigation a bellwether trial is looked at like a “predictor” of what will happen if other cases go to trial.  A bellwether case is chosen to be representative of the pool of pending cases and the outcome of the trial can influence the resolution of the remaining cases. The verdicts in early bellwether trials can help the opposing parties predict how future juries will react to evidence that both sides will repeatedly use if a large number of cases go to trial. Based on these early jury verdicts, the both sides may be motivated to work toward a global resolution.

U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell’s Case Management Order No. 20 establishes hard dates for case specific fact discovery which will begin on January 5, 2017 – with the deadline to depose all of the Discovery Group 1 plaintiffs by February 16, 2017.

By April 17, 2017, drawing from the Discovery Group 1, each side will exchange: (1) a list of six proposed plaintiffs for Bellwether Group 1 and (2) the proposed order of the trials. If the parties cannot agree on the final six cases for trial, Judge Campbell will select the trial group after the briefing deadline of April 28, 2017.

This discovery and trial plan coincides with MDL 2641 Management Order No. 18, where Judge Campbell wrote, “The Court’s intention will be complete bellwether selection [and] … hold the first bellwether trials in the Fall of 2017. Other bellwether trials may also be possible before the end of 2017”

Lawyers at Paglialunga & Harris, PS are litigating cases for individuals who have experienced complications following an IVC implant. If you or somebody you know was implanted with an IVC filter, please contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation.

 

 

Comments for this article are closed.