By Marilyn T. McGoldrick, Esq.

Posted on June 19, 2013

Last week the West Virginia court overseeing the vaginal mesh litigation involving Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit issued a pair of new pre-trial orders. The first rescheduled the presentation of possible bellwether cases to the court by one week, to July 25, 2013. The court will review the cases presented and decide which cases will be the first to go to trial, and in what order they will be tried. None of the other dates in the court’s pre-trial order were changed, so the first trial is still scheduled to be held on January 14, 2014 in front of Judge Joseph R. Goodwin.

The second new pre-trial order adopts a stipulation agreed to by both sides regarding documents produced in response to subpoenas to third parties. It gives Johnson & Johnson & Ethicon 30 days to review the documents and designate any portions as confidential or proprietary information. The plaintiffs will have copies of all the documents from the beginning including the 30 day period of confidentiality review. We believe this is a fair agreement and it will speed up the acquisition of the documents we believe will strengthen the plaintiffs’ cases.

Thornton Law Firm mesh lawyers continue to investigate transvaginal mesh claims against J&J and Ethicon, as well as against the other vaginal mesh manufacturers American Medical Systems, Inc., C.R. Bard, Inc., and Boston Scientific Corp. We offer free consultations. If you are one of the thousands of women who received painfully defective mesh implants, tell us your story here, or call us at 888-341-1405 to discuss your legal rights. Time limits for filing a claim are short so do not delay.