The FDA issued a safety communication to the public in August 2010 expressing concerns over a growing number of device adverse event reports involving IVC filters. According to the FDA, since 2005 the agency had received 921 such reports, of which 328 involved device migration, 146 involved detachment of device components, 70 involved perforation of the IVC, and 56 involved filter fracture.

As a result of these complications, hundreds of patients began filing lawsuits against several IVC filter manufacturers, alleging the filters were defective and the companies failed to recall and warn medical patients about the risks. Lawsuits against Bard and Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc. were consolidated in Arizona District Court in August 2015 — combining over 3,000 filter suits into a single multi-district litigation (MDL).

In the first bellwether trial of the MDL, a federal jury awarded $3.6 million in damages to a woman who was injured when a filter manufactured by C.R. Bard broke apart in her body in 2009. The woman, who was 37 at the time, had to undergo open heart surgery to remove the broken pieces of the filter.