A meeting between Cook Medical and lawyers representing plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits against the company failed to produce a settlement for hundreds of pending nationwide claims.
At present, there are in excess of 500 product liability lawsuits pending in federal court, surrounding problems with Cook Celect and Cook Gunther Tulip IVC Filters. The filters are designed as retrievable devices implanted into the vena cava to capture blood clots from deep vein thrombosis traveling to the lungs and causing a pulmonary embolism. The allegations claim that the small wire traps can fail, tilt out of position or puncture the vein. Some cases claim the devices fracture, sending small bits of wire throughout the body.
Due to the similarity of all the claims, the federal cases throughout the country have been consolidated into a multidistrict legislation or MDL, for pretrial proceedings. All of the lawsuits have been centralized before U.S. District Judge Richard R. Young in the Southern District of Indiana. The purpose for the MDL is to reduce duplicative discovery, avoid conflicting rulings and avoid a log jam within the court system. The court scheduled a series of bellwether cases to help determine the response of juries to certain evidence and testimony that is expected to be a common thread within all the cases.
Prior to the commencement of the bellwether trials the court scheduled an IVC settlement conference in an attempt to negotiate a settlement for the claims between Cook Medical and the plaintiffs. According to a docket entry posted this week, attorneys serving as lead representatives for both parties met with U.S Magistrate Judge Tim Baker on June 27. The court indicates that the discussions were held, however, no settlement was achieved that would have affected over 500 IVC cases.
In the upcoming months, a series of bellwether cases are scheduled to be presented to juries. If no settlement is reached with Cook Medical prior to or following those test cases, hundreds of cases may be remanded back to the U.S. district courts, nationwide, as individual trials.
Filing an IVC Filter Suit
In addition to the cases involving Cook Medical, a great many similar IVC cases are pending in a separate MDL against C.R. Bard. These cases are before U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell in Arizona. Over the next year, bellwether cases are expected to commence in that litigation as well.
If you have had a Cook or Bard IVC filter implanted that resulted in serious complications it is important that you waste no time seeking the help of a personal injury attorney, experienced in cases involving defective medical devices. There are statutes of limitations in these cases, many of which are scheduled to expire quickly. Once the individual statute of limitations runs out, there will be no more opportunity to collect compensation for medical expenses, loss of income, pain and suffering and more.
Source: About Lawsuits (.com)