DePuy Pinnacle Hip Lawsuit Scheduled for Trial in MDL by Sept. 2014

As the number lawsuits over DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip replacements continues to grow nationwide, the federal judge presiding over the multidistrict litigation (MDL), has indicated that the first trial date will not begin until at least September 2014.

The DePuy Pinnacle is one of several metal-on-metal hip replacements that have been the subject of mounting litigation brought by individuals who had their implant fail within a few years after receiving it. The complaints allege that the artificial hips release metallic debris as the metal parts rub against each other, making the metal-on-metal design prone to fail.

According to a Case Management Order (PDF) issued on August 14, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade has set the schedule for selecting a handful of cases for early trial dates involving problems with the DePuy Pinnacle hip.

Known as “bellwether” cases, such early trial dates are designed to help the parties gauge how juries are likely to respond to evidence that will be presented throughout many of the cases, and the outcomes may help facilitate an eventual settlement or other resolution for the litigation.

DePuy Pinnacle Hip MDL Continues to Grow

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized all federal DePuy Pinnacle hip lawsuits in May 2011, ordering that complaints filed in U.S. District Courts throughout the country will be transferred to Judge Kinkeade for consolidated pretrial proceedings in the Northern District of Texas.

At the time the DePuy Pinnacle MDL was formed, about 57 complaints were pending in various courts throughout the country. That number has since grown to include 1,841 DePuy Pinnacle hip complaints.

All of the suits involve similar allegations that the metal-on-metal configuration of the DePuy Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System was defectively designed or manufactured, and that inadequate warnings were provided about the risk of early complications or problems, which often develop within a few years of the surgery. In many cases, the DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement complications result in the need for additional surgery to replace or revise the hip replacement.

According to the Case Management Order issued last week, the parties are continuing document discovery through the end of this year, so that depositions of witnesses that may apply to all cases can begin in January 2013.

The parties have been ordered to submit a stipulated protocol for the selection and conducting of bellwether trials in the DePuy Pinnacle MDL by December 31, 2012.

Metal-on-Metal Hip Lawsuits Consolidated in Several MDLs

In addition to lawsuits over the Pinnacle hip implants, a number of similar MDLs have been established for other metal-on-metal hip system.

Johnson & Johnson and their DePuy Orthopaedics subsidiary face more than 8,000 product liability lawsuits filed by individuals who have experienced problems with the DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip, which was recalled from the market in August 2010 amid reports of a higher-than-expected failure rate. The DePuy ASR was approved by the FDA because the manufacturer indicated that the design was a substantial equivalent to the DePuy Pinnacle, which was already on the market.

The DePuy ASR hip MDL is centralized before Judge David A. Katz in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. While the first MDL bellwether trial is set for April 2013, it was recently reported that DePuy ASR settlement agreement was reached in a state court case pending in Nevada, which was set to be the first trial in the country involving metal-on-metal hip replacements.

Other manufacturers of metal-on-metal hip replacements face similar claims over problems with their implants, including the Biomet M2A-Magnum hip replacement and Wright Medical Conserve Plus hip.