Depuy Hip Lawsuit Updates

After a long period of calm, the lawsuit against DePuy Orthopedics is beginning to see some movement. DePuy, who issued a recall of its hip implant systems late last year, is being sued because their implants are defective. U.S. District Judge David A. Katz of the Northern District of Ohio, who is the man presiding over the lawsuit, has finally handed out leadership positions to 34 attorneys for the DePuy lawsuit.

DePuy Lawsuit Gaining Popularity

When the case against DePuy was first approved in December of last year, only 7 people had filed a lawsuit. Now, the count has risen exponentially, with over 200 lawsuits filed against DePuy in the case so far. That number is expected to grow.
“There is no doubt there will be thousands of cases,” said one lawyer. “The damages will be in the billions of dollars.”
Some lawyers who are on the panel responsible for reporting crucial facts about the case to DePuy said that they alone have reviewed over 500 cases.

The Lawsuit So Far

In August 2010, the first event happened that would lead to a lawsuit. A study was released to the public which showed in detail how DePuy’s hip implants failed at a rate of 13 percent. It also showed how those with the implant developed metal poisoning and bone fractures. Another study was then released claiming that the rate was even higher and that most people with the implant would have to undergo hip revision surgery to get a new implant. Because of this, DePuy was forced to issue a recall of their hip replacement systems, which opened the floodgates to lawsuits.
Because of the large number of cases that were filed, the courts decided to roll the DePuy lawsuits into a process known as MDL. MDL, which stands for multi-district litigation, is similar to a class action lawsuit, but has some key differences. In multi-district litigation, all of the pretrial proceedings are consolidated into one case in order to make things quicker. However, once the pretrial stage is over, all cases are seen on an individual basis in the courts where they were filed.

Will DePuy Settle?

The reality is that most of the cases filed against DePuy will never need to be seen in court, because it is likely that DePuy will settle with plaintiffs. This conclusion is strengthened by actions of Johnson & Johnson, who set aside $922 million dollars to cover DePuy settlements.