Obviously, this is a disappointing verdict. However, it is important to remember that this case was just the first of thousands of lawsuits involving the metal-on-metal version of the DePuy Pinnacle hip to be heard by a jury.
New York, New York (PRWEB) October 24, 2014
The nation’s first trial of a DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuit (http://www.consumerinjurylawyers.com/depuy-pinnacle/lawsuit) has ended in a win for Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics unit, Bernstein Liebhard LLP reports. According to court documents, the jury hearing the case in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, deliberated for a total of 12 hours over three days before returning a verdict for the defense. (Herlihy-Paoli v. DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., 11-cv-3590)
“Obviously, this is a disappointing verdict. However, it is important to remember that this case was just the first of thousands of lawsuits involving the metal-on-metal version of the DePuy Pinnacle hip to be heard by a jury. This litigation is far from over, and plaintiffs’ trial team did a stellar job presenting the story of J&J’s alleged failings in regards to design and testing of these products. Ultimately, the jury simply found the facts of this particular case did not support plaintiffs’ claim,” says Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationwide law firm representing the victims of defective drugs and medical devices. The Firm continues to offer free legal evaluations to individuals who were allegedly harmed by this metal-on-metal hip implant.
DePuy Pinnacle Hip Replacement Litigation
Court documents indicate that more than 6,800 product liability claims are now pending in the federal multidistrict litigation under way in the Northern District of Texas. Jeffrey S. Grand, a partner with Bernstein Liebhard LLP, is serving on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee for the proceeding. All of these lawsuits similarly allege that a metal-on-metal version of the Pinnacle hip that utilizes the Ultamet liner can shed dangerous amounts of toxic metal debris into recipients’ blood stream and surrounding tissue, resulting in metallosis, pseudotumor formation, and other serious complications that have the potential to cause premature failure of the implant. Plaintiffs further assert that this alleged design flaw is similar to the issue that resulted in the 2010 recall of DePuy’s ASR hip implants, and question whether or not the metal-on-metal Pinnacle should have been recalled as well. (In re: DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. Pinnacle Hip Implant Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2244)
In May 2013, Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics unit disclosed that they would stop selling metal-on-metal hip implants, including the all-metal version of the Pinnacle hip replacement that is at the center of this litigation. While the companies have asserted that the move was driven by commercial concerns rather than safety issues, their announcement followed an alert published by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2013, which warned that metal-on-metal hips were more likely to fail early than those made of other materials.*
Alleged victims of injuries and complications related to the metal-on-metal version of the DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost wages and other damages. To learn more about filing a DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit, please visit Bernstein Liebhard LLP’s website. For a free and confidential evaluation of your case, call 800-511-5092 today.
*http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-16/j-j-will-stop-sales-of-metal-on-metal-hip-replacements.html, Bloomberg News, May 17, 2013
About Bernstein Liebhard LLP
Bernstein Liebhard LLP is a New York-based law firm exclusively representing injured persons in complex individual and class action lawsuits nationwide since 1993. As a national law firm, Bernstein Liebhard LLP possesses all of the legal and financial resources required to successfully challenge billion dollar pharmaceutical and medical device companies. As a result, our attorneys and legal staff have been able to recover more than $3 billion on behalf of our clients. The Firm has been named by The National Law Journal to the Plaintiffs’ Hot List, recognizing the top plaintiffs firms in the country, for the past 12 consecutive years. Bernstein Liebhard LLP is the only firm in the country to be named to this prestigious list every year since it was first published in 2003.
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