Class Action/Mass Torts

Hip replacement surgery is a very serious decision. Generally after suffering from arthritic hips, or other joint problems that can be very painful, thousands of people feel their only alternative is surgery to make them better. After carefully choosing a doctor who will perform the surgery, the patient is in the hospital, maybe for days, and then faces months of physical therapy, all in the hopes of a pain-free life that will allow them once…

A jury in California returned a verdict for $8.3 million against Johnson & Johnson, makers of the recalled DePuy hip replacement device. It is estimated that more than 90,000 of these ASR hip implants were recalled in mid-2010. At the time, the company said that 12 percent were expected to fail within five years. The verdict, which came in the Los Angeles Superior Court following a six-week trial, is the first of many to follow….

A Los Angeles jury is deliberating in the first defective DePuy hip implant case on behalf of a 65-year-old former prison guard in Montana who alleged he suffered metal poisoning and other health problems from the company’s ASR XL hip implant he received in 2007. Johnson & Johnson, makers of the device and the defendant in the action, face thousands of lawsuits as “the world’s largest seller of health-care products failed patients before recalling 93,000…