DePuy ASR Hip Lawsuit Damages Upheld
A jury award of $8.3 million in a faulty medical device case has been upheld by a California judge, after being contested by defendant company Johnson & Johnson. The medical device maker claimed there was insufficient evidence that their DePuy ASR hip implant had caused the plaintiff’s injuries, and asked Judge J. Stephen Czuleger to overturn the verdict. The ruling has major implications for the thousands of cases still awaiting trial.
The judge chose to reject Johnson & Johnson’s request after deciding that the jury’s decision was reasonable. The conclusions of the trial – which wrapped up in March – found that the plaintiff had suffered permanent injuries as a result of the controversial metal-on-metal implant loosening.
More than 10,000 similar lawsuits are currently pending in state and federal courts. In some cases, plaintiffs struggling to meet the financial demands of a lengthy litigation process have required DePuy hip lawsuit funding in the form of a pre settlement cash advance, intended to bridge the gap between filing suit and winning compensation.
So far, only one other lawsuit has made it before a jury, a trial that resulted in a defense verdict for Johnson & Johnson. The company reportedly offered to settle pending cases for an average of $200,000, a figure rejected by lawyers for the plaintiffs as insufficient.
DePuy ASR recalled by Johnson & Johnson
Worldwide, there have been more than 90,000 recipients of the DePuy ASR hip system. In August 2010, Johnson & Johnson recalled the implant after research data indicated a higher than expected failure rate. The company’s own figures suggested a failure rate of between 12% and 13% – but outside experts estimate a failure rate as high as 30% over a six year period.
According to some legal experts, the problems encountered by recipients of the device could have been avoided if Johnson & Johnson had not taken advantage of a fast-track route to market known as the 510k, an FDA clearance process that does not require stringent clinical trials for products purporting to be “substantially similar” to existing devices. By bypassing the usual safety reviews, the risk of metallosis (metal poisoning), caused by metal debris eroding from the implant, was not made known to the public.
In 2012, the FDA issued new guidelines regarding the use of metal-on-metal hip replacement systems. Physicians were advised to use such systems only when there was no viable alternative, and to closely monitor any patient who had already received a metal-in-metal implant. Manufacturers are now required to prove the safety of their systems if they want to keep them on the market, and any metal-on-metal implant made in future will have to undergo rigorous clinical testing before being made available.
Johnson & Johnson is also facing more than 3,000 claims regarding their Pinnacle hip system.The first trial is scheduled to begin in September 2014. Johnson & Johnson has reportedly earmarked more than $2 billion to cover both Pinnacle and ASR lawsuits.
DePuy hip lawsuit funding can help plaintiffs pursue legal action
Thousands of lawsuits accuse Johnson & Johnson of failing to adequately warn the public about the risks associated with the devices, and federal multidistrict litigation (MDL 2197, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio) is now underway.
For those facing a long, arduous legal process, DePuy hip lawsuit funding may be the best way to cover financial costs including lost wages, bills, and legal costs. LawStreet Capital will evaluate your case and give you the biggest pre settlement cash advance possible. A decision will be reached within 24 hours, and the funds transferred to your account overnight in most cases.
Call the helpful representatives at LawStreet Capital today at 800-345-8500, or fill out the form to the right to find out if you qualify for DePuy hip lawsuit funding.
