An Overview of MDL and Hip Implant MDLs

Product liability litigation focuses on holding the manufacturers of defective or dangerous products responsible for their negligence in failing to:

• Adequately test the safety of their products
• Warn people about the possible risks associated with the use of their products.

For such litigation focused on medical devices, hip implants (or hip replacement devices) have been a particularly hot topic, as various manufacturers of these devices are alleged to:

• Have known about the high rates of early failure for these devices
• Have marketed these devices as safe and effective for hip replacement patients despite knowing about the serious dangers associated with these devices
• As a result, endangered the lives of many patients.

What is Multi-district Litigation?

As news of the problems with hip implants became more widely publicized and reports of hip implant injuries continued to grow, an increasing number of injured patients filed product liability lawsuits against the negligent manufacturers of these devices. The snowballing lawsuits eventually led to many cases being consolidated into multi-district litigation (MDL).

MDL is a way for courts and litigants (i.e., the plaintiffs and defendants) to speed up the pretrial process associated with product liability cases. It effectively allows:

• The evidence gathering process for multiple cases to take place at once (i.e., multiple litigants in separate cases can benefit from a single evidence-gathering process, which is officially known as the discovery process).
• The court to only have to make rulings regarding these cases once, which not only saves the resources of the court but also ensure that consistent rulings are made for these cases (e.g., the ruling on a specific issue doesn’t differ in different courts across the U.S.).

Here we’ll provide some additional important information regarding the ongoing multi-district litigation for hip implant lawsuits. While the first part of this blog focused on explaining what multi-district litigation is and why it was enacted for hip implant lawsuits, in this follow-up blog, we will provide an overview of the various MDLs that have already been set up and are underway for specific types of hip implant lawsuits.

The following table highlights the current, ongoing hip implant MDLs underway in various courts throughout the U.S.

Hip Implant Maker	Hip Implant Device	MDL No.	Location of MDL	Presiding Judge
DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.	ASR Hip Systems	2197	Ohio (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio)	Honorable Solomon Oliver, Jr.
DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.	Pinnacle Hip Implant Systems	2244	Texas (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas)	Honorable Ed Kinkeade
Wright Medical Technology, Inc.	Conserve Hip Implant Devices	2329	Georgia (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia)	Honorable William S. Duffey, Jr.
Stryker Corp.	Rejuvenate Hip Implant Devices	2441	Minnesota (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Minnesota)	Honorable Donovan W. Frank

 

It’s important to point out that: 

• This table is not a comprehensive listing of all of the MDLs for hip implant product liability litigation (as new MDLs may be created and existing ones may be resolved).
• While joining a hip implant MDL may be a good idea for some litigants who file new hip failure lawsuits, for others, filing their case outside of the MDL may be a better idea.
• An experienced attorney can provide professional advice regarding whether it is better for an injured person to join an MDL or file a separate case, based on that person’s specific case and needs.

 

Let’s Talk about Your Rights: Portland & Seattle Lawyers

If you or a loved one has suffered a hip implant injury and/or has had to undergo a revision surgery to replace a defective hip implant device, the Portland product liability attorneys at the Savage Law Firm encourage you to learn more about your rights and case by setting up a free, no obligations initial consult. We represent clients in Oregon and Washington from our offices in Portland and Seattle, and we will work tirelessly to help injured patients hold hip implant manufacturers responsible for their negligence.

Our Portland Hip Implant Lawyers Welcome You to A Free Initial Consult

The Portland hip implant attorneys at the Savage Law Firm are committed to providing each of our clients with personal attention, respect and the highest quality legal services. We understand how devastating a personal injury can be on a physical, as well as a psychological and financial, level, and our lawyers are here to aggressively advocate injured people’s rights to both justice and compensation.

This means that our Portland hip implant lawyers will work relentlessly to help our clients tell their stories in court. It also means that our attorneys and dedicated staff will vigorously stand up to insurers and others outside of the courtroom to ensure that our clients are able to secure the settlements they deserve.