Since 2006, the staff and attorneys of Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley, P.C., have led efforts to hold the manufacturers and sellers of defective surgical mesh accountable for the harm they have caused to patients across the nation.
Our managing partner, Henry G. Garrard III, is widely considered a trailblazer in this area. Garrard has served a lead role in the nationwide transvaginal (or “pelvic”) mesh cases, one of the largest product liability litigations in the history of the U.S. After serving as lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the Mentor ObTape transobturator tape MDL (MDL 2004) in the Middle District of Georgia, Garrard, and BBGA have been at the forefront of the cases that are being litigated in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, which are listed below:
• In re C.R. Bard, Inc. Pelvic Repair Systems Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2187)
• In re American Medical Systems, Inc. Pelvic Repair Systems Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2325)
• In re Boston Scientific Corp. Pelvic Repair Systems Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2326)
• In re Coloplast Corp. Pelvic Repair Support Systems Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2387)
• In re Cook Medical, Inc., Pelvic Repair Systems Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2440)
• In re Neomedic Pelvic Repair Sys. Products Liability Litigation, MDL 2511
In 2010, Garrard successfully led efforts to create the Bard pelvic mesh MDL, or multidistrict litigation. He was appointed by the Court as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the Bard pelvic mesh litigation. In 2012, Garrard and the firm also succeeded in efforts to create the MDLs involving American Medical Systems, Boston Scientific, and Ethicon, and to have those cases transferred to the Southern District of West Virginia for coordination before the same court handling the Bard cases. Three other pelvic mesh MDLs have since been coordinated before the same court.
Garrard was appointed as “Coordinating Co-Lead Counsel” for the Plaintiffs in all seven pelvic mesh MDLs, and another of the firm’s attorneys, Josh Wages, was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in all seven MDLs. The seven pelvic mesh MDLs involved more than 100,000 cases, and our firm has coordinated with lawyers from around the country to work toward the resolution of many of these cases.
Garrard also devotes significant time to educating the legal community about the defective mesh litigation, as well as other defective medical devices and other products. He has served as co-chairman of the American Association for Justice’s Transvaginal Mesh Litigation Group. He has given presentations for AAJ meetings and teleseminars, and he has spoken to other lawyer groups, seminars, and workshops across the country.
BBGA Managing Partner Henry Garrard