Lawyers for plaintiffs who allege injuries from Ethicon’s vaginal mesh are seeking reconsideration of a decision not to impose severe sanctions for discovery violations.
U.S. District Magistrate Judge Cheryl A. Eifert, who is involved in the multidistrict litigation pending in the Southern District of West Virginia, found that Ethicon’s earliest duty to preserve evidence arose for its TVT vaginal mesh line April 30, 2007, and for its Prolift vaginal mesh line April 21, 2008, because a February 2011 hold notice by Ethicon’s in-house counsel “refreshed” the 2007 and 2008 document preservation notices. Vaginal mesh is used to treat pelvic prolapse and urinary incontinence in women.
