JPML creates separate Abbott and Nevro spinal cord stimulator MDLs

Following the September 24 hearing, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued separate transfer orders consolidating federal lawsuits against Abbott Laboratories and Nevro over allegedly defective spinal cord stimulators. Abbott cases were sent to the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins, while Nevro cases were centralized in the Northern District of California before Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. The complaints allege the devices can malfunction, migrate, deliver painful shocks, or require revision or removal surgery, and the new dockets join an earlier Boston Scientific only MDL created in June 2026.

Why it matters. The new MDLs give plaintiffs centralized venues to pursue claims against two more spinal cord stimulator manufacturers, expanding litigation the firm already tracks alongside the Boston Scientific docket.