Francoie Stephens was watching television when he saw a commercial about the DePuy hip recall. The commercial made Stephens realize that medical implants could be defective. Stephens consulted with lawyers and learned about the Zimmer hip recall.

Stephens had a Zimmer Durom hip replacement implanted in 2007. Just four years later, Stephens had to undergo a revision surgery because of the adverse medical reactions associated with defective Zimmer hips. Stephens suffered from heightened blood levels of cobalt chromium. Medical research has linked contamination from cobalt and chromium to deteriorating defective hip replacements, including those subject to the Zimmer hip recall and the DePuy hip recall. The contamination may lead to a number of medical complications.

Stephens filed suit in federal court on June 21. He is seeking compensatory damages for physical injury, emotional distress, medical expenses, disability, and pain and suffering. He is also suing for court costs and interest. Stephen’s case is based on Zimmer’s negligence and carelessness in manufacturing, designing, labeling, distributing, and marketing the hip implant when defects made the device unreasonably dangerous.

DePuy hip lawsuits are governed by product liability law. When defective products injure people, the victims may sue the manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of the product. These lawsuits may be particularly effective when a manufacturer has recalled a product. Product recalls indicate that the manufacturer realizes that the product may endanger the public.

Product liability claims are divided into three categories: product design, product manufacturing, and failure to warn. Product design lawsuits assert that the defective design of a product – like a defective Zimmer hip replacement – injured the victim. Product manufacturing lawsuits assert that the manufacturing process caused an unintended defect that injured the victim. Failure to warn lawsuits assert that the manufacturer failed to inform the consumer of the dangerous risks associated with the product. For example, a failure to warn case against a metal hip replacement manufacturer may assert that the company did not inform consumers that a metal hip implant could raise blood levels of cobalt chromium.

Many product liability lawsuits allege design defects, manufacturing defects, and failure to warn issues. Stephen’s case against Zimmer includes all three categories. In some instances, the plaintiff would be wise to limit the case to one or two categories of product liability claims instead of all three. If the plaintiff knows that the intended design of the product could not have possibly caused the injury, for instance, design defect claims should be left out of the complaint.