Susan Barfield (00:06):
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tort Talk Thursday here as always with Joe Fantini of Rosen Injury Lawyers. Joe, thanks for taking time this week.
Joe Fantini (00:15):
Thanks for having me, Susan. Always love getting together and chatting with you about the latest developments in the mass tort world.
Susan Barfield (00:21):
Yeah, and before we dive in, I just want to thank today’s sponsor of Tort Talk Thursday, which is Legal Calls. Legal Calls are case originators who specialize in detailed interviews of potential claimants, including documentation and medical record verification, which is huge. One of the other things I really appreciate about legal calls is that their intake agents are paid great wages rather than commissions, and so what we know about that is that structure really drives integrity. So thank you to Legal Calls for sponsoring today’s tort talk Thursday. Okay, Joe, let’s dive right in. Of course, we’re interested to hear the updates as it relates to the Bard hernia mesh settlement. Do you have any details to share?
Joe Fantini (01:02):
Yeah, great news for the Bard hernia mesh cases. All of our clients out there that were impacted, this is a true global settlement, and so what I mean by that is cases both in the MDL and in Rhode Island State Court, every case that was filed and on record, it’s going to be included in this settlement. Basically, we had about 25,000 cases pending in the MDL and around 13,000 in Rhode Island State Court for about 38,000 total cases. What I’m hearing, the numbers not exactly out there yet. It’s going to be somewhere over a billion up to 1.5 billion, so we’ll get some details in the coming months if you have cases out there. What you need to do right now is make sure you have all of your records, the implant, the revision surgeries, any subsequent treatment to get the maximum of valuable for them, but we’ll have a special master assigned. We’ll go through that process and we’ll keep giving you guys updates here as we move forward with this great settlement.
Susan Barfield (01:56):
Yep. Very exciting. Thanks for that update. Let’s turn to talking a little bit about AFFF. I know that the plaintiff expert reports were due. What are next steps? Can you share a little bit there?
Joe Fantini (02:06):
Yeah. Really big milestone in this litigation. We have the plaintiff expert reports they’re due. What we’re going to have happen next is the defendants are going to give their responses. Then we’re going to go forward with the DAUBERT hearing. This is the all important hearing to see whether or not the judge as the gatekeeper feels that our plaintiffs passed the muster and the standard to get in front of the jury. That’s going to be in Q1 2025, but this is a really big moment, and if you remember back at CPAP, it was around this same time after we were about to serve our reports that there was a global settlement. I’m hearing that’s not the case in af. Everybody does still feel positive about these cases. Look for positive ruling after the DAUBERT hearing in the beginning of next year. That will really apply pressure and hopefully get a settlement by the time we speak this time next year.
Susan Barfield (02:54):
That’d be fantastic. Okay, and lastly, talk to us a little bit about Depo Provera. We know that this is, many women have used this for years birth control, so tell us a little bit about this litigation and some of the injuries.
Joe Fantini (03:07):
Yeah, Depo Provera new litigation update that we’re hearing about, the first lawsuit was filed on October 1st, so just last week. We’re expecting thousands, probably in excess of 10,000 lawsuits going to be filed. This contraceptive has been on the market for over 30, 40, up to 50 years. Tens of millions of women worldwide have used it, and what happened was there was a study that came out recently that showed a dramatic increase of the risk of brain tumors if you use this, firms are investigating brain tumors and also spinal cord tumors. The criteria right now, we’re looking at individuals who used it for at least one year prior to the diagnosis. We’re going to see where this goes, but I expect it to blow up in huge mass store. Unlikely to have an MDL this year, but I think 2025. This is going to be our first mass tort and MDL of the new year.
Susan Barfield (03:57):
Alright. Well, Joe, as always, we’re grateful that you take a little bit of time out of your week to provide the updates and insights. Of course. Thank you again to legal calls for sponsoring today’s tort talk Thursday. As always, if you want to hear more from Joe and I week over week and getting the latest and greatest on Mass Torts and what’s going on in the industry, subscribe to our channel and thanks so much, Joe.
Joe Fantini (04:18):
Thanks Susan.
