Susan Barfield (00:07):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another week, an episode of Tort Talk Thursday with Joe Fantini of Rosen Injury Lawyers. Joe, it’s great to have you back after a long weekend to give us all the updates and insights on Mass Torts.
Joe Fantini (00:19):
Thanks for having me, Susan. Always love talking with you over the latest developments and all things mass torts.
Susan Barfield (00:25):
Yeah. Before we dive right in, I just wanted to thank today’s sponsor of Tort Talk Thursday, which is Stratejic Relationships. So Stratejic Relationships is a niche firm. They have 18 years worth of history of helping trial lawyers, confound defendants and win cases in the areas of personal injury products liability and consumer class action. So discover what they do and what they specialize in is discovering inside secrets with former employees. So if you think about it, these former employees can provide damaging insider information that standard discovery methods cannot. So things like what the defendant knew when and what they did, if anything. So Stratejic Relationships identifies those former employees and transforms them into whistleblower. So if you want to learn more about them, you can go to stratejic.com and Stratejic is with the J for Justice. Okay. Thank you so much for sponsoring today’s episode. And so Joe, let’s dive right in. Why don’t we start off and talk a little bit about NEC? Tell us some of the updates on N-E-C.
Joe Fantini (01:25):
N-E-C is one of the most talked about mass torts here in 2024. You remember we talked about the two really big verdicts so far. So in March we had the first verdict in Chicago State Court, $60 million. And then more recently we had a verdict coming out of Missouri State Court for $495 million. In addition to those two state court actions, we also have cases being filed in Philadelphia state court. And then the MDL. The MDL was formed about two and a half years ago. We have about 600 total cases filed in the MDL and the bellwether cases just got selected and we agreed upon the order of the first four bellwether trials. These are really tragic cases with really severe injuries. So we’re looking forward to those cases. Going to trial probably the second quarter of 2025. In the meantime, there’s thousands of other cases filed in state courts and we’re looking forward to those cases. Going to trial, I don’t think we’ll have another verdict in 2024, but a lot of pressure being put on the defendants looking for potentially a global next year in 2025.
Susan Barfield (02:29):
Yeah, for sure. Okay, and then let’s talk a little bit about Ozempic. I know there’s some upcoming things that are happening on that litigation. So tell us about Ozempic.
Joe Fantini (02:38):
In the Ozempic MDL in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, we have a really important hearing going on this week. It’s science day, so what science day is the opportunity for both sides to present their experts and information and inform the judge and the court of the main issues and the main studies that they’re going to be relying on to prove their cases. So in these cases, we have the intestinal injuries that we’re really focusing on, but this will help the judge be better informed down the line when she’s making the Daubert rulings. So this is an important threshold and an important day for us to get passed. Expect the cases to pick up after that, and we could even have bellwether selection before the end of 2024.
Susan Barfield (03:17):
Fantastic. And lastly, a tort that I know that you really liked Joe, but we haven’t talked about in a while is hernia mesh. So specifically as it relates to Covidian and Bard, what have you heard?
Joe Fantini (03:28):
Yeah, so we’ve had some settlements with some manufacturers in hernia mesh previously with the Atrium manufacturer and then also Physiomesh. Right now we’re still waiting for word to come out on any Bard master settlement agreement. This settlement is supposed to include the MDL cases and also Rhode Island State Court. I’m hearing over 30,000 combined cases. We also have litigation going on against Cion. So there’s litigation in Massachusetts State Court and in the MDL as well. Also in Massachusetts, we’re moving forward with bellwether discovery. Plaintiff’s expert reports are due soon in the state court action looking like we’ll have a trial this time in 2025. So hoping those litigations are able to be wrapped up before this time next year,
Susan Barfield (04:11):
That would be fantastic. We’ve been working on hernia mesh cases for a really long time, so that would be great. Joe, as always, grateful for you to take some time out of your week to provide these updates and insights to the industry and to me. So thank you so much for spending the time with me today.
Joe Fantini (04:26):
Thanks for having me, Susan.
Susan Barfield (04:28):
Yep. And thank you again to Stratejic Relationships for sponsoring today’s episode, and if you want to hear more from Joe week over week, make sure you subscribe below. Thank you!
