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1. Pelvic Mesh Likely to See Piecemeal, Not Global, Resolution

   Jul 15, 2016 | The Legal Intelligencer

   By Max Mitchell
   
   
   In the wake of a series of high-profile verdicts against Boston Scientific, the medical device company has been hammering out settlements in the ongoing pelvic mesh litigation, but attorneys involved in the litigation have said don't expect a global resolution any time soon.

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. Pelvic Mesh Likely to See Piecemeal, Not Global, Resolution

   Jul 15, 2016 | The Legal Intelligencer

   By Max Mitchell

   In the wake of a series of high-profile verdicts against Boston Scientific, the medical device company has been hammering out settlements in the ongoing pelvic mesh litigation, but attorneys involved in the litigation have said don't expect a global resolution any time soon.

   Since December, the company has established qualified settlement funds with five law firms across the country over claims that its pelvic mesh devices were faulty. The latest fund established in the multidistrict litigation, captioned In re Boston Scientific Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, was set up at the end of last month with the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina-based firm Motley Rice.

   Although the settlement fund orders do not indicate the amount of money or how many plaintiffs the settlement fund will cover, according to attorneys in the litigation, the agreements show that the litigation will likely be resolved on a piecemeal basis, rather than through a global settlement.

   "The practice in this particular litigation is defendants will negotiate on a firm-by-firm, docket-by-docket basis," said Jim M. Perdue Jr. of Perdue & Kidd in Houston.

   Perdue was part of the team that handled a bellwether trial against Boston Scientific in November 2014. That trial, which involved four plaintiffs alleging faulty mesh caused bleeding and infections, ended with a Miami jury hitting the mesh-maker with a $26.7 million verdict.

   Before that verdict, Boston Scientific had been hit with a more than $73 million verdict, which was later reduced to $34.6 million. And since then, the company and other mesh manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon, have been hit with additional multimillion-dollar verdicts.

   In May 2015, a Delaware jury hit the company with a $100 million verdict, including $75 million in punitive damages. The verdict was later slashed to $10 million.

   The first case out of Philadelphia's mass tort program against Ethicon resulted in a $12.5 million verdict in December. The second case out of that program resulted in a $13.5 million verdict.

   According to the docket in the Boston Scientific MDL, which is based in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the court began establishing settlement funds in the wake of these awards.

   The first firm to establish a fund, according to the docket, was Athens, Georgia-based Blasingame Burch Garrard Ashley in December. Soon after, Lakewood, Colorado-based firm Andrus Wagstaff established a settlement fund, which was followed by a fund for the clients of the New Brighton, Minnesota-based firm Law Offices of Charles H. Johnson.

   In June, both Motley Rice and Philadelphia-based The Levensten Law Firm established settlement funds.

   The docket in the MDL related to pelvic mesh devices manufactured by American Medical Systems also showed settlement activity with several firms as recently as the spring.

   There is no indication of the number of cases that are expected to resolve through the settlements. Although media outlets reported in April 2015 that Boston Scientific agreed to pay $119 million to settle nearly 3,000 cases, there is also no indication of whether these recent settlements will fall under that umbrella.

   Attorneys linked the recent settlement activity to the high-profile verdicts, and said they expect litigation to continue on a piecemeal basis.

   Although one attorney familiar with the litigation said he expects the pelvic mesh MDLs will eventually result in a global resolution, Perdue said he was skeptical.

   "Never call anything in this litigation global," he said. "It's always going to be piecemeal."

   Perdue attributed the unique nature of the negotiations to the size of the litigation, which, with seven separate MDLs representing nearly 75,800 plaintiffs, is the largest pending mass tort.

   "There's a decentralized structure, with multiple defendants and multiple MDLs, all in a single court," Perdue said.

   The attorney who asked that his name not be used said he was disappointed with the piecemeal nature of the settlements, as it has allowed the defendants to neglect talks with firms that only represent a handful of plaintiffs, and to "pick off [cases] where they can."

   The attorney said he would prefer to see settlements being hammered out based on the classifications of plaintiffs, rather than a firm-by-firm basis, so any firm with plaintiffs whose claims suit a particular settlement agreement could begin to resolve their cases.

   Perdue, however, said there is no telling yet if the unique negotiating style will favor one party or the other.

   "I'm not sure that story has fully been told yet," Perdue said. "It's a very unique mass tort because of its size, and the number of defendants. I don't know if you can extrapolate into that."

   Given the number of verdicts that have come down and the amount of the awards, Perdue said the pace of the resolutions have been slow, but he said the recent settlement activity shows the litigation may be heading toward a conclusion.

   "The litigation has taken some steps towards resolution, and shown some light at the end of a very long tunnel," he said.

   Several attorneys with the settling firms did not respond to messages seeking comment. A spokeswoman for Motley Rice and a spokeswoman for Boston Scientific declined to comment for the story.

   http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202762787460/Pelvic-Mesh-Likely-to-See-Piecemeal-Not-Global-Resolution?mcode=0&curindex=0&curpage=ALL
   

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