Selections will be made after the U.S. District Judge presiding over all Exactech knee recall lawsuits rejected a request by the manufacturer to delay the preparation of bellwether claims for early trial dates.
Late last month, the manufacturer of recalled Exactech implants asked a judge to halt the active litigation while parties discuss a potential global hip and knee lawsuit settlement.
Court asked plaintiffs to respond to Exactech's request to hold off on further case-specific discovery by Friday, to determine whether scheduled trials will move forward or the parties will shift to global settlement negotiations.
FDA investigators found that Exactech failed take proper corrective actions to address packaging defects that caused joint replacement recalls and Exactech knee, hip and ankle implants to fail
Lawyers will select a dozen Exactech knee replacement lawsuits that will go through case-specific discovery and be prepared for a series of early test trials, with the first two scheduled to begin June 2, 2025 and August 5, 2025.
The FDA is warning doctors not to implant Exactech Equinoxe shoulder systems manufactured before August 2021, due to defective packaging that could increase the risk of early problems with the shoulder replacement.
Lawyers have exchanged a list of Exactech lawsuits over knee, hip and ankle replacements which could serve as the first bellwether cases to go before juries in the federal court system
Exactech faces more than 1,000 hip and knee implant lawsuits in federal and state courts nationwide, according to court documents.
Exactech lawsuits continue to be filed in both state and federal courts as the parties try to develop an acceptable plan for early bellwether trials.
Discovery will be conducted over the next year, with a bellwether trial plan for Exactech recall lawsuits expected to be filed by July 15, 2023
