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On January 30, 2018, Judge Goodwin entered four case management orders in the Ethicon, Boston Scientific, Bard, and American Medical Systems mesh MDLS.  These CMOs establish discovery and briefing deadlines for 13200, 6174, 2876, and 952, cases respectively – a total of 23202 cases.

The discovery and briefing schedules are identical in all four orders. The deadlines are:

Plaintiff Fact Sheets.                                                              03/19/2018

Defendant Fact Sheets.                                                          04/19/2018

Deadline for written discovery requests.                                05/18/2018

Expert disclosure by plaintiffs.                                               06/04/2018

Expert disclosure by defendants.                                           07/05/2018

Expert disclosure for rebuttal purposes.                                 07/23/2018

Deposition deadline and close of discovery.                          09/04/2018

Deadline to file list of general causation experts.                   09/11/2018

Filing of Dispositive Motions.                                                09/21/2018

Response to Dispositive Motions.                                          10/05/2018

Reply to response to dispositive motions.                              10/12/2018

Filing of Daubert motions.                                                      10/05/2018

Responses to Daubert motions.                                              10/19/2018

Reply to response to Daubert motions.                                   10/26/2018

In addition to the plaintiff’s deposition, the parties may take up to 4 treating physician depositions. See Paragraph two of the orders.  Depositions of friends and family are not subject to these deadlines. Id. Depositions are limited to three hours (both sides), absent other agreement of the parties. Id.

Assuming that each plaintiff timely files a fact sheet by the March 19 deadline, that means that the defendants have 167 days thereafter in which to schedule depositions. Assuming an average of three treating physician depositions (at least one implanting surgeon, at least one post-injury treater, and an additional from either of those categories) per case, that means about four depositions in each of 23202 cases, for a total of some 92,808 depositions.  Spread equally across the 167 days after defendants learn the nature of each plaintiff’s case, and who the plaintiffs’ physicians are – the parties are being ordered to take approximately 556 depositions each day.

This 556 deposition per day figure does not count depositions of other witnesses, such as sales representatives, friends and family, and expert witnesses. Nor does it address preparation of each side’s fact sheets, and motion practice, all of which are now scheduled in the 23202 cases that are the subject of the four mesh CMOs.

Good luck to all – you’ll need it.