A confidential settlement agreement was reached just two weeks before the start of a bellwether case in a coordinated litigation in California regarding hip implants. The terms of the settlement agreement were not revealed.
The trial had been scheduled to begin in the middle of October 2013. The next bellwether trial is set to begin in January 2014 in Los Angeles. Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., face thousands of lawsuits at the federal and state levels regarding the ASR implants.
In March 2013, a Los Angeles jury returned a verdict of $8.3 million in damages to a retired prison guard who claimed that he was injured by the device. This was the first such trial against the orthopedic company.
A month later, in April 2013, an Illinois jury entered a verdict in favor of DePuy in an ASR case, finding against the injured party, a registered nurse who was implanted with the ASR hip replacement device in 2008.
In this settled case, Robert Ottman underwent a total hip replacement using an ASR device in August 2008. In his complaint, it was maintained that the implant caused him severe pain and made it more difficult for him to walk. He had a revisionary surgery in November 2011 because of the ASR’s defects and failure.
Johnson & Johnson and DePuy knew that great numbers of the ASR devices were not working properly for more than five years prior to Mr. Ottman’s surgery replacing his hip. Johnson & Johnson recalled the implants in August 2010.
The first ASR Johnson & Johnson bellwether trial was in the multidistrict litigation over the device that was to start in September 2003. However, an Ohio federal judge continued the trial because of unresolved discovery issues.
There have been no federal multidistrict trials related to the Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR hip implants. There have been several state cases that have gone to trial and others have settled.
Another case, MacDonald v. Johnson & Johnson (DePuy) settled in New Jersey on the eve of trial that was set to begin Oct. 21, 2013. That case was set to commence in the Superior Court of Bergen County, N.J.
Robert Eugene Ottman v. Johnson & Johnson (DePuy), Superior Court of San Francisco County, Calif.
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling mass tort cases, pharmaceutical defect cases, medical device defect cases and DePuy ASR hip implant defect cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of another for more than 37 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Naperville, Bolingbrook, Joliet, Chicago (Rogers Park, Lincoln Park), New Lenox, Richton Park, Calumet City, North Aurora, Addison, Schaumburg, Mundelein, Gurnee, Lake Forest, Maywood, Park Forest, Elmhurst, Brookfield, Lyons and Wheeling, Ill.
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