Most reporting on MDL 3181 describes a product liability case against Boston Scientific. That is accurate and incomplete. The same MDL also carries claims against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under the Administrative Procedure Act, and on September 23, 2026 the court placed those claims on a separate procedural track with their own deadlines.
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What Pretrial Order No. 5 did
On September 23, 2026, Judge Josephine L. Staton entered Pretrial Order No. 5 in In re Boston Scientific Corporation Spinal Cord Stimulator Products Liability Litigation, No. 2:26-ml-03181 (C.D. Cal.). The order directs plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel to file a single Consolidated APA Claim Complaint against the FDA on or before October 23, 2026, and places those claims on a procedural track separate from the product liability claims against Boston Scientific.
The order followed a joint submission by the parties. On September 11, 2026 the court issued an in-chambers order stating that it had reviewed that submission and intended to adopt the proposal put forward by Boston Scientific and plaintiffs, and directing the parties to lodge a proposed order within seven days setting dates for the consolidated complaint and for any motion to dismiss it.
Two tracks, one MDL
The practical effect is that MDL 3181 now proceeds on two parallel paths:
- The product liability track — claims by patients against Boston Scientific over its spinal cord stimulator systems. This is the track that an injured patient’s case belongs to.
- The APA track — claims against the FDA, brought under the statute that governs how federal agencies make decisions, and litigated on its own schedule.
These are different claims against different defendants. An APA claim challenges agency decision-making. It is not a personal injury claim, it does not seek compensation for an injury, and a patient does not need one to bring a product liability claim against a manufacturer.
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The court-ordered calendar
These are deadlines the court has set, not predictions.
- Wednesday, October 7, 2026 — status conference
- Friday, October 23, 2026 — Consolidated APA Claim Complaint due; master personal injury complaint due
- Friday, November 20, 2026 — motions to dismiss due
- Friday, December 18, 2026 — oppositions due
- Friday, January 15, 2027 — replies due
- On or after Thursday, February 5, 2027 — hearing on the APA motions to dismiss
Every order in MDL 3181, in date order, is on the MDL 3181 docket tracker.
Where the FDA appears elsewhere in this litigation
The agency is not only present in the Boston Scientific MDL. Counsel for the FDA has also appeared in connection with the two consolidation petitions the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation granted on October 2, 2026 — the Abbott petition (MDL No. 3194) and the Nevro petition (MDL No. 3195) — filed notices of related action in September 2026, and waived oral argument on August 31, 2026.
What this does and does not mean for a patient
It does not change who can bring a product liability claim, what that claim has to show, or when it has to be filed. State filing deadlines run on their own schedule and are not paused by anything on this page.
What it does mean is that the case against the manufacturer and the case against the agency now move on different calendars, and that the first substantive deadline in MDL 3181 — October 23, 2026 — belongs to the FDA track.
Correct scope, which is frequently reported wrong
MDL 3181 covers Boston Scientific only. On June 5, 2026 the Panel centralized the Boston Scientific cases and expressly denied the request to fold in cases against the other stimulator manufacturers. Abbott and Nevro are the subject of separate petitions — MDL No. 3194 and MDL No. 3195 — which the Panel granted on October 2, 2026, centralizing the Abbott cases in the Northern District of Illinois and the Nevro cases in the Northern District of California. Medtronic is the subject of neither.
Sources
- Pretrial Order No. 5 (Consolidated APA Claim Complaint), entered September 23, 2026, No. 2:26-ml-03181 (C.D. Cal.).
- Civil Minutes — General (in chambers), September 11, 2026, Dkt. 65, same case.
- Joint status report and proposed agenda, filed September 30, 2026, Dkt. 71, same case.
- J.P.M.L. transfer order creating MDL No. 3181 and denying industry-wide centralization, June 5, 2026 — hosted on this site.
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See if you qualify
A few quick questions about your spinal cord stimulator, the problems you experienced, and any revision or removal surgery. This is the initial intake screening, not a full case review. Most people finish in about two minutes.
- 🔒 Confidential
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- ⏱ ~2 minutes
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