On January 8, 2018, the U.S. District Court in Arizona issued a proposed pretrial Order adopting procedures for jury selection in the first Bard IVC filter bellwether trial.
According to the Order issued in Multidistrict Litigation 02641 (MDL 2641) the first bellwether case – Sherr-Una Booker v. C. R. Bard Incorporated and Bard Peripheral Vascular Incorporated (2:16-cv-00474) – is set to begin a three week jury trial on March 14, 2018. District Judge David G. Campbell’s Order includes the following timetable:
- By January 16, 2018, the Clerk will mail a case-specific questionnaire to 200 jurors.
- On February 23, 2018, the Court will provide the parties with a list of prospective jurors the Court proposes to excuse for hardship.
- At the final pretrial conference on March 2, 2018, counsel will be permitted to challenge the Court’s excusal of any of the listed jurors.
- At 9:00 a.m. on March 14, 2018, fifty prospective jurors will be called for voir dire.
- The Court will seat nine jurors.
- Opening statements and evidence will begin on the afternoon of March 14, 2018.
- The trial is expected to last three weeks.
The Bard IVC filter multidistrict litigation – IN RE: Bard IVC Filters Products Liability Litigation 2:15-md-02641 – was formed back in October 2015. Presently, more than 3,000 IVC filter lawsuits are pending in the consolidated action. The Booker case will be the first jury trial against Bard for injuries allegedly caused by one of its IVC filter products.
The plethora of evidence and data that could be introduced during the trial has received national media coverage recently. In one instance, an investigation by NBC News reported that at least 27 deaths have been associated with Bard Recovery filter. As part of the story, the network interviewed Dr. William Kuo, an interventional radiologist who runs Stanford Health Care’s IVC Filter Clinic – which specializes in removing failed blood clot filters. Dr. Kuo stated, “All of the data that we’ve seen in our own studies, as well as other clinician researchers, is that this device consistently fractures, consistently causes major complications … The number of complications, the frequency of severe failures makes it obvious that it was never safe to be implanted.”
The three week Booker trial will be watched closely by legal professionals nationwide as the outcome could influence the resolution of the remaining cases currently pending against the Bard defendants in MDL 2641.
Lawyers at
Paglialunga & Harris, PSare litigating cases for individuals who have experienced complications following an IVC implant. If you or somebody you know was implanted with an IVC filter, please contact our lawyers immediately for a free case consultation.
