Hernia Mesh Lawsuit

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A hernia mesh lawsuit is a type of legal action taken by individuals who have suffered grave injuries thanks to hernia mesh that was defective or improperly inserted. by filing a legal action against the manufacturer, they get the chance to both hold the manufacturer responsible and to recover fair compensation to cover their losses.

Most, if not all, of the individuals filing such lawsuits are doing so with the help of a hernia mesh lawyer. our hernia mesh attorneys guide clients through the legal process and fight on their behalf for fair damages.

What Is the Latest Update on the Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

As of May 2024, there are still thousands of hernia mesh cases pending against several manufacturers:

C.R. Bard
Atrium Medical Corp.
Covidien
Ethicon

May 23, 2024

During this meeting, the judge overseeing the Covidien MDL:

Modified the scheduling order and pushed everything back eight months
Pushed back the general corporate discovery to December 9, 2024

Plaintiffs must be identified for the first bellwether trial by May 12, 2025.

The order of trials and all trial dates won’t be established until September of 2025.

Even as these active hernia mesh lawsuits proceed, some plaintiffs have already recovered settlements. In 2021, the manufacturer Ethicon agreed to settle many of the cases against it. The results of these cases are confidential, so we do not know how much Ethicon paid out in total or how much any given plaintiff received.

December 4, 2023

On December 4 2023, J&J and its subsidiary Ethicon agreed to settle 224 cases in a Georgia MDL (multidistrict litigation). Court documents did not reveal the amounts of these settlements.

November 9, 2023

A jury awarded $500,000 to a Maine man in the third C.R. Bard bellwether trial.

What Comes Next in the Hernia Mesh Lawsuits?

Many people have already recovered settlements or jury awards from their hernia mesh cases. Many more such cases are either preparing for trial or working to negotiate settlements from the liable corporations.
In the months and years ahead, you can expect these cases to keep moving forward. Given how many have been resolved in the plaintiffs’ favor, it seems likely that more settlements and jury verdicts are forthcoming.

Is it Too Late to Join a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

No, there is still time for plaintiffs who believe they were injured by hernia mesh to take action. Time is of the essence, however: eventually, the ongoing cases will all be completed, and as a condition of these settlements, the corporations may not be considered liable for any damage they did.

The best thing a potential plaintiff can do to protect their rights is to get in touch with our personal injury attorneys and start exploring their options immediately.

What Do the Lawsuits Allege About Hernia Mesh Products?

According to the plaintiffs, they suffered severe injuries after a surgeon implanted hernia mesh that was defective in its construction or design. The four corporations cited above are alleged to have:

Had a duty of care towards the plaintiffs. That means the manufacturers were responsible for keeping the people who use their products safe.
Violated their duty of care. Such violations might include using substandard materials when building their product or failing to warn their customers about the potential risks involved in using hernia mesh.
Caused the plaintiffs’ injuries. As a direct result of these companies’ negligence, thousands of patients who used the faulty mesh suffered unnecessary, life-altering injuries.
Negatively impacted the plaintiffs’ lives. The injuries they suffered have affected their ability to enjoy close personal relationships, succeed at work, and live a life free of injury-related chronic pain or stress.

What Are the Complications of Hernia Mesh?

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hernia mesh is supposed to treat and prevent the recurrence of hernias. Since a hernia is caused by an organ poking through tissue or muscle, it can often be treated by using mesh to close up and strengthen the weak spot in the tissue or muscle.

When successfully implanted, hernia mesh can relieve the patient’s pain and reduce their risk of suffering another hernia in the future. Like with any surgical procedure, however, there are certain hernia mesh complications the patient should be made aware of.

Complications can include:

Abdominal pain
Adhesion
Bowel perforation
Intestinal blockage
Intestinal fistula
Other complications related to hernia mesh

Regardless of the type of hernia mesh complication, all plaintiffs can fight for justice.

Holding Hernia Mesh Manufacturers Liable

In order to work as advertised, hernia mesh must be designed and constructed properly. This means:

Using materials, whether natural or synthetic, that the manufacturer knows will do the job it is being used for
Designing the product to be safe and effective
Performing rigorous testing at all stages of manufacturing

Further, the manufacturer must warn the public about the risks of using the mesh and issue a prompt recall if and when unforeseen problems arise.

Who Qualifies for the Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

Anyone who can prove that they were seriously injured by hernia mesh has the right to take legal action. There are several legal options available to such individuals. Some may qualify to join an existing legal action, if their injuries are similar enough to those suffered by the other people in that action.

If a person’s case does not match closely enough with any ongoing litigation, their lawyer can recommend starting a new case. In time, other plaintiffs may join this case to create a new mass tort case against the negligent party.

Proving Eligibility for a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit

Before deciding which legal action is right for a particular client, a personal injury attorney will investigate the cause and consequences of their injury. This process often involves:

Speaking extensively with the client about their experiences
Interviewing other parties involved in the case, such as the liable party’s representatives and people the plaintiff knows personally who can confirm the injury’s effects on their life
Requesting pertinent documents from all involved parties, such as company records or medical records

Time Limits on Hernia Mesh Lawsuits

Another factor that can affect a person’s eligibility to file a case is the statute of limitations. This is a deadline set by state law. In order to recover damages, a person must begin their lawsuit before the statute of limitations runs out.

In California, for example, a potential plaintiff likely has two years to file a case, according to CCP § 335.1. If they meet this deadline, they can qualify to join or begin a surgical mesh lawsuit. If they miss the deadline, they are no longer eligible to file a lawsuit. They may be able to negotiate for a settlement, but they won’t have any leverage during negotiations.

We recommend that you call the KJT Law Group as soon as possible to get started. We don’t want you to overstep the time limit.

How to File a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

Anyone considering filing any sort of legal action should first consult an attorney. A hernia mesh law firm can:

Assess the prospective client’s case, often over the phone at no charge
Decide whether it would be best to start a new legal case or to join an existing action
File the right paperwork to ensure the client’s case gets consideration from a judge in a timely manner
Build a case by investigating and engaging in discovery (exchanging evidence with) the liable party

Hernia Mesh Attorneys Do All of the Legal Work

Most plaintiffs have little to no legal experience of their own. Worse, they are often dealing with chronic pain and still grappling with the aftermath of their injuries. For these reasons, many take advantage of their right to legal representation and hire a personal injury lawyer to help them. Our attorneys are equipped to:

Negotiate for a pretrial settlement. Settling out of court is often faster and easier for everyone involved, but that does not mean winning such a settlement is simple. Our attorneys may spend long hours preparing their arguments and meeting with the at-fault party’s team before they come to a fair agreement.
Represent clients at court. Not every lawyer is a trial lawyer, so it is important for plaintiffs to find a representative who can help them no matter how their case goes. Our trial lawyers can deliver courtroom arguments, question witnesses, and fight hard for a favorable verdict.
Help clients decide whether to file a case individually or to join a mass tort already in progress. Joining a mass tort can make it easier to take on a large, well-funded corporation.
Protect their clients’ rights. The liable party might try to protect their own interests at the plaintiffs’ expense. Regular people may not be aware of the tactics that big corporations use or know how to defend themselves against such dangers. An attorney from our firm, on the other hand, knows exactly what to watch out for.

Why Should You Hire a Hernia Mesh Lawyer from KJT Law Group?

A plaintiff can only sue over a given injury once, so it is vital that they get what they need the first time. The law shows very little mercy to individuals who are unfamiliar with the legal process or who are coping with serious injuries.

Hiring a personal injury lawyer from our firm is often the best thing a person can do to safeguard their legal rights.

How Long Does a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit Take?

The legal system is very complex. While it can take years for any given defective hernia mesh product case to work its way through that system, there is no set timeframe that a personal injury case must operate within. This is because:

Hernia Mesh Cases May Be Rescheduled

Sometimes, a trial is scheduled to begin on a particular date, only to later be pushed back by several months (or longer). The court may reschedule cases for a number of reasons, such as if:

Both sides want to continue negotiating.
There is an unexpected new development.
One side needs more time to put their case together.

Hernia Mesh Cases Involve Powerful Companies

No matter how much harm they have done, corporations are rarely willing to accept responsibility and make things easier on the plaintiffs. They retain teams of attorneys to protect their interests, fight back against hernia mesh claims, and drag out the proceedings as long as they legally can.

Hernia Mesh Cases Can Be Complex

Even if both parties move in a timely manner, a legal action is still a very complicated process that often takes months or longer. This is especially true in mass tort cases, where there may be dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of parties involved in a single action. Everyone involved needs time to:

Collect and examine all of the relevant evidence
Select jury members they are satisfied with
Determine where and when the trial will take place
Present their case to the court, which may involve copious documentary evidence and numerous witnesses

What Is the Average Payout for a Hernia Mesh Lawsuit?

There is no such thing as an average settlement for hernia mesh cases or, indeed, for any type of lawsuit. This is because:

Even similar injuries may present differently in different patients. It is important that each person gets evaluated by both an experienced doctor and a lawyer with experience handling mesh cases.
Everyone’s life path is unique. A hernia mesh injury will have a different effect on a manual laborer than it will on an office worker, or a stay-at-home parent, or a business owner.
Hernia mesh injuries run the gamut from serious but treatable to potentially life-threatening. In other words, such injuries cost varying amounts of money to treat, and their symptoms may be either temporary or permanent. All of this impacts a potential settlement.

How to Determine the Worth of a Hernia Mesh Case

Our team can’t determine what compensation a plaintiff may be eligible to recover until we have investigated their case. However, hernia mesh plaintiffs often recover:

Medical bills
Travel costs related to receiving medical care
Loss of income
Loss of earning capacity or future employment opportunities
Pain and suffering, to include emotional distress
Reduced quality of life or loss of independence
Noticeable scar tissue
Disabling injuries (either temporary or permanent disabilities)

What if There Is Disagreement About a Hernia Mesh Case’s Value?

As previously mentioned, hernia mesh manufacturers and the insurance companies representing them will almost inevitably fight back against lawsuits. One of the tactics they might try is to introduce doubt regarding the value of the plaintiffs’ case by:

Denying that their product played a major role in causing the plaintiff’s injuries
Downplaying the plaintiff’s suffering by claiming that their injuries are not as bad as they say
Claiming that the plaintiff is capable of working or does not need certain medical treatments, even if that is not true
Falsely blaming someone else, like the plaintiff or their doctor, for not using the mesh correctly

If a plaintiff faces accusations or assertions like these, our team can jump in to protect them. The evidence we gather can serve as a good defense against the liable party’s counterclaims.

Have More Questions About Hernia Mesh Lawsuits?

If you have questions about whether you can file a hernia mesh lawsuit, call KJT Law Group today. You can receive a free case evaluation by calling (818) 507-8525. Our firm is always glad to assist potential clients by listening to their story, explaining their rights, and fighting for the amount of compensation they deserve.