DePuy ASR Update

Last week, it was reported that five people close to the DePuy ASR MDL 2197 litigation confirmed settlement discussions.  In response, the leadership of the Executive Committee, emailed the following statement to those reporters: “The lawyers and leadership in the cooperating jurisdictions are working for the benefit of the 35,000 United States patients who have this recalled medical device.  We have reviewed some 50 million pages of documents that have been produced and have taken over 50 depositions.  At this time we have a significant number of trials set with the company and we are primarily focusing our efforts on trial preparation.  Any comment relating to settlement that does not come from leadership, the Court, or from the company itself, is speculative and uninformed.” 

 

The first case will start in Los Angeles on Tuesday.  While it is part of the California proceedings, California leadership and the MDL leadership have been working cooperatively to develop evidence, witnesses and experts for this case as well as all cases across the country.  Next month, another trial is set to start in Illinois which is also part of the cooperating jurisdictions.   Judge Katz, who presides over the MDL, selected two plaintiffs’ cases for trial.  The first will occur in May in Toledo and the second will be in July. 

DePuy ASR Trial Update

In what was expected to be the first DePuy ASR case to proceed to trial and was scheduled to begin this week, has ended with a dismissal. The Plaintiffs’ claims against the DePuy and Johnson & Johnson defendants are to be refiled in the federal multidistrict proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Some media and news sources had reported that the case had settled, which was incorrect. The dismissal order entered January 8 was with prejudice as to claims against in-state defendant Chesapeake Surgical Ltd., pursuant to stipulation, but without prejudice to claims against DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., and affiliates.

First DePuy ASR Trial Set to Go Out Monday January 7th

 

The first DePuy ASR hip trial in the nation is scheduled to begin on Monday, January 7, 2013, in Prince George's Maryland Circuit Court. Bellwether trials in the federal DePuy ASR hip litigation will commence later this year. The trial is expected to last three weeks, according to court documents. (Jackson, et al. v. Chesapeake Surgical Ltd., et al., CAL 10-32147)

Thousands of DePuy ASR hip lawsuits are also pending in a multidistrict litigation underway in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, MDL No. 2197. According to court documents, the first trial in the federal DePuy ASR hip litigation will begin on May 6, 2013, with a second trial set for July 8, 2013.

6,000 DePuy ASR hip replacement lawsuits have been consolidated into the MDL based in Toledo, Ohio. Those proceedings are overseen by U.S. District Judge David A. Katz.  There are another 2,000 cases filed against Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary DePuy across the United States, including lawsuits filed in Nevada, Maryland, California, Wisconsin, Florida and Utah.

The MDL is due to convene for a status conference in January 2013, during which time the court will most likely detail preparations for the first bellwether trials.

Although the statute of limitations has run in many states, people who have not yet filed a lawsuit should contact Booth Samuels toll free at 866-515-8880.