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DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit Judge Gives Leadership Roles to Lawyers

26th March, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Some 93,000 units of DePuy Orthopaedics’ ASR XL Acetabular System and ASR Hip Resurfacing System were recalled in August 2010 due to a flaw that made recipients suffer from health complications. Pain, inflammation, loss of mobility and metal toxicity are some of the symptoms experienced by affected recipients. A revision surgery is needed by about 11,000 recipients just within 5 years after their hip replacement procedure. The DePuy hip replacement recall withdrawal prompted patients to file lawsuits.

The leadership positions that the DePuy Multidistrict Litigation needs were already given to various lawyers who vied for the roles. The positions that needed to be filled were: Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, Science Committee, Discovery Committee, and Law and Motions Committee. The Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel and Plaintiffs’ State Liaison Counsel, two other positions, will be appointed by the Executive Committee.

For those who have been following the DePuy case, you may have already known that an MDL ruling was given for all federal lawsuits involved. The case was given to Judge David A. Katz of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo. To know which aspect of the case will be assigned to, an initial status conference was held on January 26. The attorneys were given until the 23rd of December to apply for these leadership positions. Attorneys who have applied were given two minutes each to present their reasons for applying for the positions.

In order for plaintiffs as well as the defendant to have ease of accss to relevant pretrial information, the Multidistrict Litigation was deemed necessary. Since there are a number of plaintiffs filing essentially the same type of case against DePuy, the MDL would concentrate all efforts under one case making it relatively easier for all parties involved to pursue the lawsuits. And since the cases vary, plaintiffs can adjust the information to conform to their individual case as opposed to having received a single amount that one would get in class action suits. Product liability lawsuits, therefore, would benefit more from an MDL rather than class action suits.

It was estimated that the number of lawsuits filed against the orthopedic device company could reach as many as 4,000. { If you are experiencing the symptoms associated with the defective DePuy hip device, contacting a lawyer should be one of your priorities. Learn more about the MDL leadership roles in the hip replacement recall information site.