Global Resolution Plan Underway for Massive Bard Hernia Mesh MDL

Levin Papantonio law firm announces the establishment of a global resolution process for the third largest multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the U.S.—MDL 2846 IN RE: Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation.

The resolution process established a four-year payment structure. Execution of the first defendant payment will occur before the end of the year.

As Becton Dickinson (BD) addressed in its press release on today’s date:  “The hernia mass tort litigation represents a large majority of BD’s total product litigation reserve.”  BD’s most recent Annual Statement shows that its product litigation reserve is $1.9 billion. 

LP Attorney Tim O'Brien serves as Co-Lead Counsel for the federal MDL and served as Lead Trial Counsel for each of the three MDL bellwether trials that resulted in two plaintiffs’ verdicts, which determined that the company failed to warn of the risks of its hernia mesh products. After the most recent plaintiff’s verdict, U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus, who oversees the MDL, removed the fourth scheduled bellwether trial case from the docket and ordered the parties to focus on resolving the litigation via a global mediation process.

The attorneys' tremendous efforts over the past seven years included deposing dozens of corporate witnesses and reviewing tens of millions of pages of Bard documents. 

"We are pleased that the tens of thousands of MDL claimants who suffered injuries from Bard's polypropylene mesh devices are on the road to receiving the relief they deserve," O'Brien said.

As of October 1, 2024, more than 24,000 lawsuits are pending in the federal Bard Hernia Mesh multidistrict litigation, IN RE: Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation. The number of pending lawsuits places the Bard Hernia Mesh MDL behind only the 3M Earplugs MDL and the Johnson & Johnson Talc Ovarian Cancer MDL, making it the third-largest MDL in the country. 

Attorney Tim O'Brien is a board-certified civil trial attorney who concentrates his practice in the areas of mass tort litigation, product liability, personal injury, wrongful death, and transactional liability. He has been appointed Lead or Co-Lead counsel in numerous product liability MDLs and has tried more than sixty civil cases around the country.

In September 2018, Mr. O’Brien was appointed by the United States Southern District of Ohio as Co-Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in MDL No. 2846, In re Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation. 

O'Brien has been interviewed by and extensively quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Pink Sheet, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News, and by National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and Air America Radio, as well as several European national news organizations in other product liability litigations where he was the lead counsel.

The Levin Papantonio law firm has been representing injured people across the globe since 1955. The firm has gained national recognition as one of the most successful personal injury firms in the world and has been featured on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, as well as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, Forbes, and National Law Journal.

LPR attorneys handle lawsuits throughout the country and have helped obtain more than $80 billion in jury verdicts and settlements, litigating against some of the largest corporations in the world.