After your complaint is docketed in a court, and the defendant has filed an answer, you will engage in pre-trial proceedings that include discovery, depositions, and motions.
In a mesh lawsuit, discovery will involve requests for documents, requests for admissions about certain facts, and written questions, called interrogatories. Because of the complex nature of the product liability claims involved in these cases, and the fact that they involve large, multinational medical device corporations, discovery is expected to be an expensive and time-consuming process. The mesh product attorneys of Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley, P.C. have extensive experience with this type of discovery in complex civil litigation.
Additionally, the pre-trial phase of these lawsuits will involve numerous depositions, which are interviews conducted by the attorneys with potential witnesses that are taken under oath before a court reporter. If your case is selected for individual trial preparation by the trial court, the defendants will want to take depositions of you, your family, and your medical providers, and we in turn expect to take depositions of certain employees and representatives of the companies that make these products. Both sides will also have various experts that will testify in the case about certain technical, medical, or scientific issues, and they will also give depositions. In some instances, the deposition testimony may be used instead of calling the witness to the stand during the trial.
Finally, pre-trial proceedings involve the filing of numerous motions, which are formal requests for the trial court to rule on matters such as forcing a party to take some action, excluding evidence, or clarifying a procedural issue. In civil litigation, it is common for defendants to file pre-trial motions to dismiss some or all of the claims asserted – or to dismiss certain parties from the lawsuit.
In a multidistrict litigation case, these matters are addressed in the same court by a single judge. This avoids duplicate or inconsistent rulings in different courts, and it conserves the resources of all parties.