On November 16, 2017, a federal jury in Dallas ordered Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics unit to pay $247 million to six patients who claimed they were injured by defective Pinnacle hip implants.  This is the third straight bellwether trial win for claimants, as the jury found the DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal implants were defectively designed and that the companies failed to warn the patients about the risks. This follows two other wins for the plaintiffs, in which juries awarded $500 million to six claimants in March, 2016 (later reduced by the Court to $150 million) and $1 billion for six claimants in December, 2016 (later reduced by the Court to $543 million).  Along with the other verdicts, this latest verdict is expected to be appealed by DePuy.

Phoenix, Arizona mass tort product liability attorney Stephen I. Leshner has successfully resolved over 100 cases involving defective hip replacement systems and has many pending DePuy Pinnacle cases.  While there have been global settlements in the DePuy ASR, Zimmer, Stryker, Wright, Biomet, Encore and Smith & Nephew cases, no global settlements have been reached in cases involving DePuy Pinnacle (over 9,700 pending cases) which still remain in the bellwether trial process, despite the claimant’s trial success.  If you are someone close to you has been injured as a result of any defective metal-on-metal hip, which required the surgical removal and replacement of the hip replacement system or its components, please contact Steve Leshner for a free consultation.