There are many large hernia mesh law firms who use and abuse hernia mesh victims. These mesh firms will dehumanize victims through their actions, non-actions and conduct. Mesh victims should steer clear of these “mesh victim factory” law firms. Here are numerous indications that your law firm is an impersonal, uncaring, hernia mesh lawsuit processing center.

mesh law firms

  1. Call Center mentality- When you call the firm, you speak to a nitwit, low level operator who does not know the difference between hernia mesh and fabric mesh.
  2. Unable to speak with Lawyer- If you request to speak to a  hernia mesh lawyer, you have better chance of hitting the jackpot than speaking to the actual hernia mesh attorney who will be litigating your hernia mesh lawsuit.
  3. Uncaring- The hernia mesh law firm will never care about your pain and suffering, your complications and how this hernia mesh has effected your life. They make victims feel unimportant because the lawyers have a large number of hernia mesh clients. They refuse to show sympathy, empathy or warmth to the complications, side effects, pain and immense economic and psychological suffering of the victims.
  4. Hold case for long period and dump case- The law firm may “lead you on” – making you believe that they will in fact be taking your case. They will potentially hold your case for months, maybe years before informing you they are dumping the case. They will unceremoniously dump you without a valid explanation. When they finally decide they are not accepting your hernia mesh lawsuit, they will dump you with some vague, non explanatory, ‘we are dumping you letter.’ If you seek an explanation as to why they are not accepting the case, you will get the ‘company line’ about how some other law firm may take your case. The big mesh law firms, are too afraid to tell you that you missed a state hernia mesh statute of limitations. They do not want to face liability.
  5. High Rejection rates- They reject over 90 percent of potential hernia mesh lawsuits. These law firms refuse to accept, do not accept or decline the vast majority of  hernia mesh clients. The vast majority of the time they give no legitimate reason for the rejection. Turning down and rejecting so many hernia mesh lawsuits indicates that they do not care.
  6. They engage in group think- For example, nearly all hernia mesh law firms in the United States refuse to accept an Ultrapro hernia mesh lawsuit. This lack of fortitude is despite the fact that many people believe Ultrapro is defective and unreasonably dangerous.
  7. Only want easy cases- Many firms only want to take the no-brainer, easy hernia mesh lawsuits such as Ethicon Physiomesh. Physiomesh cases are easy because Physiomesh was withdrawn from the market by Ethicon which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson.  Ethicon’s actions were tantamount to a hernia mesh recall. When the more difficult hernia mesh lawsuits, such as Prolene hernia mesh, are presented to these mesh big law firms, they run for the hills. They are too afraid to take on big corporate America in difficult hernia mesh lawsuits.  Any mention of Prolene hernia mesh, Ultrapro hernia mesh, or other defective hernia mesh, these mesh law firms will run and hide.
  8. Afraid to take complicated lawsuit- Many of these law firms are too afraid to take on cases when a victim has multiple hernia mesh implants or multiple surgeries.
  9. Require revision / repair surgery- Many of these firms require a hernia revision surgery before they will consider taking the case.
  10.  Inventorying cases-The hernia mesh law firm literally does not care about individual cases and is attempting to amass hundreds, perhaps thousand of easier, simpler hernia mesh lawsuits with the hopes of a hernia mesh settlement to line their pockets, all the while selling their clients short.
  11. Large firm does not mean better- Many hernia mesh victims believe that it is best to retain a large mesh law firm to represent them in their hernia mesh lawsuit. Most victims look for a hernia mesh law firm who is lead counsel in a particular Multidistrict litigation. These beliefs are misguided and incorrect. Some large hernia mesh law firms treat victims as inventory. These law firms amass thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of mesh victims. This article helps mesh victims not become “inventoried” by a law firm who is more interested in amassing millions of dollars in lucrative common benefit fees then helping victims get justice and compensation

Warning! Insider information that Big Law does not want you to know!

Beware of big law firms with thousands of hernia mesh clients part of a Multidistrict litigation. Some of these mesh law firms will pitch their leadership positions in the Multidistrict litigation. As soon as a big dollar settlement is offered, that sounds like a lot of money, these hernia mesh law firms will cut and run from their clients.  They will pressure their client’s into accepting the mesh settlement whether or not it is a fair and just settlement for that particular client. They will pressure their client’ to accept the settlement.

They will make it seem like accepting the settlement offer is the mesh victim’s only realistic option. They will not properly explain the legal ramifications and the costs and benefits of accepting the hernia mesh settlement. It will be nearly impossible to speak to an actual hernia mesh lawyer about the ramifications of legally of accepting the settlement and the pros and cons of accepting the settlement.

Many victims want to know answers to the following questions before accepting a hernia mesh settlement:

These lawyers often have a 40 percent contingency agreement agreement. If there is a 200 million dollar settlement proposal, the lawyers want to get their money and cut and run. They are not interested pursuing an individual lawsuit for victim that has a million dollar case. They will pressure client’s with big cases to accept  the $90,0000 dollar settlement. Despite the fact that the victim has a good individual lawsuit, on the merits, that may be worth millions, these surgical mesh law firms will not offer a viable option to pursue an individual lawsuit. Why would these large law firm’s with hundreds of cases want to pursue the victim’s individual lawsuit when the law firm has just settled 500 to 1,000 of their client’s cases and is about to walk away with 30 million dollars?

When a big law firm with thousands of clients has a large mesh settlement proposal from the manufacturer, what will they do?

  • Pressure their client to accept the mesh settlement.
  • Disparage their own client’s case on the merits, to the client, and question the client’s own ability to win the the hernia mesh lawsuit on the merits

The Kugel Hernia mesh settlement

There has only been one global settlement of hernia mesh lawsuits, the Kugel Mesh Settlement. “C.R. Bard has reportedly reached an agreement to settle Kugel hernia mesh lawsuits brought by about 2,600 people who experienced severe internal injuries caused by problems with their hernia repair patches, with in an average payout of about $70,000 for each plaintiff. ” aboutlawsuits

What is the Plaintiff Steering Committee in a Multidistrict Litigation?

“It is necessary for an MDL transferee judge to impose some organizational structure on the attorney representation so that the case can proceed in an effective and efficient manner. To accomplish this task, the court usually appoints a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) to speak for all of the plaintiffs and their lawyers and a Defendant(s)’ Steering Committee (DSC) to speak for the defendant(s).But in practice, the DSC is generally selected by the defendant itself with the approval of the court.” Common Benefit Fees in Multidistrict Litigation, Eldon E. Fallon

What does the Victims’ steering committee do in the MDL hernia mesh lawsuits?

“The committees occupy leadership roles in the litigation— conducting documentary discovery, establishing document depositories, taking depositions, arguing motions, conducting bellwether trials, and in general, carrying out the duties and responsibilities set forth in the court’s pretrial orders, including appearing before the court at periodic conferences or hearings.15 The MDL transferee court theoretically oversees the discovery aspect of the case and remands various cases back to the transferor courts for further proceedings. In practice, however, it is not unusual for the transferee court to conduct bellwether trials and encourage a global resolution of the matter before recommending to the Panel that the case be remanded.” Id.

What are common benefit fees?

“All of this work consumes time and raises costs. While the members of the DSC are typically compensated by their client on a regular basis, the members of the PSC are not. Because the work that the PSC performs inures to the common benefit of all plaintiffs and their primary counsel (the counsel that they employed), MDL transferee courts usually establish a procedure for creating a common benefit fee to compensate the members of the PSC and the members of any subcommittees who have done common benefit work.” Id.