Our DePuy ASR Recall and Metallosis team, has been aggressively notifying the general public about the problems and risks associated with the Metal on Metal hips. As explained in the 30 plus articles that I have written, this is a huge problem and that we may be experiencing the tip of the litigation iceberg.
We can report with confidence that the federal ASR hip replacement lawsuits are increasing on a daily basis, as the knowledge of premature failure and the risks of metallosis, are being brought to the attention of the folks who underwent hip relacement with this type of hip model.
We get electronic notification each time a new DePuy ASR lawsuit is filed in the federal court overseeing this litigation. And our email box has been filling up with these notifications. There is an average of 20 new cases filed daily in the federal multidistrict litigation, In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation (“MDL No. 2197”).
There are approximately 2,600 cases currently pending in the DePuy ASR MDL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The Judicial Panel for Multi-District Litigation consolidated all federal cases arising from the DePuy ASR recall in December 2010.
There are over 1,000 related ASR hip cases pending in state courts. 37,000 Americans received the recalled ASR hip implants, and we predict that this litigation is likely to continue.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has received more than 5,000 complaints since January about metal-on-metal hip implants. According to the EDA, 75 percent of those complaints involved the recalled ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System.
As a medical doctor and trial attorney, who represents clients who were injured by the ASR hip implants and my litigation team are actively filing cases in the DePuy ASR MDL on their behalf, I am not surprised the numbers of claims filed against DePuy, which is a subsidiary of the medical device and pharmaceutical giant, Johnson and Johnson.
It has now been fifteen months since the DePuy ASR was recalled. There are many differing statutes of limitations depending on which state the plaintiff lives in or had the orthopedic surgery. The majority of the states have a 1 or 2 year statute of limitations. Please click here to find out your states’ statute of limitation for product liabilty.
Some of these statutes of limitations may have run in some states so it is important for any patient with a DePuy ASR or Pinnacle to get legal advice as soon as possible.
DePuy may wait until many of the state statutes of limitations have expired before begining to settle cases. They do not want the news of settlements, to cause a stampede of lawsuit claims from folks who have waited to then try to file lawsuits for compensation. Any settlement news will trigger an avalanche of DePuy ASR lawsuits.