Another ruling is in on one of the Pinnacle hip implant lawsuits, and it represents a major victory for plaintiffs in these cases. A federal court jury in Texas has ruled that DePuy Orthopaedics—a division of Johnson & Johnson—owes six plaintiffs from California over $1 billion. However, the blow from this case could just be the beginning of J&J’s woes since there are thousands of these cases left to be resolved.
How Will Hip Implant Lawsuits Be Affected By the $1 Billion Verdict?
In 2013, J&J stopped selling Pinnacle hip implant devices because of health issues being caused by the device. Victims claimed that the metal-on-metal implants were hurting them due to design flaws, and it wasn’t the only J&J product having those kinds of problems.
In the same year, J&J paid $2.5 billion to settle over 7,000 other hip implant lawsuits. These lawsuits were for ASR metal-on-metal hip replacement devices that were recalled in 2010. So, facing lawsuits over hip implants is nothing new for this vast medical conglomerate. However, this recent verdict could have the medical giant paying far more than $2.5 billion.
There are currently more than 8,000 lawsuits over these DePuy-produced metal-on-metal implants, and the courts have broken these cases down into several test cases. These test cases will serve as a gauge for the many others, and this recent verdict is only the third test case. The first test case was dismissed, but the second one had a $500 million verdict.
With more test cases to come, and appeals that will surely tie courts up for years, just how deep will J&J’s pockets have to be to get through this one? Do you think the other test cases will end with high priced verdicts like this? Stick with the nationally recognized defective medical device lawyers at Colson Hicks Eidson. Our product liability blog will keep you informed, and our Twitter and Facebook pages are a great place to interact.