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DePuy ASR Hip Lawsuit News: Expert Testifies on Toxicity of Metal Debris, Notes Bernstein Liebhard LLP.

DePuy ASR Hip Lawsuit News: Expert Testifies on Toxicity of Metal Debris, Notes Bernstein Liebhard LLP

An expert witness in the first DePuy ASR hip lawsuit to go to trial has testified that the Plaintiff’s metal-on-metal hip failed because of toxic metal debris shed from the device.

This testimony is not surprising. Many of our clients fitted with the ASR have gone on to experience high levels of metal ions that resulted in failure of their implant.

New York, New York (PRWEB) February 04, 2013

An expert witness called to the stand Friday in the nation’s first trial of a DePuy ASR hip implant lawsuit testified that the Plaintiff’s hip failed because of the toxic metal debris shed from the device. According to a report from Reuters, tests showed that the Plaintiff’s levels of cobalt and chromium reached as much as seven times the normal level after he received the ASR hip. The witness, an occupational medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, did not treat the Plaintiff, but did review his medical records. (Kransky v. DePuy, BC456086, California Superior Court, Los Angeles County)*

“This testimony is not surprising. Many of our clients fitted with the ASR have gone on to experience high levels of metal ions that resulted in failure of their implant,” says Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationwide law firm representing the victims of defective drugs and medical devices, including hundreds of recipients of the ASR hip implant. The Firm is offering free DePuy ASR lawsuit consultations to individuals allegedly injured by the recalled implant.

DePuy ASR Litigation

Some 93,000 ASR hips were recalled in August 2010, after the metal-on-metal hip implants were found to be failing in 12-13% of recipients within just 5 years. Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics unit are facing more than 10,000 claims stemming from the DePuy ASR hip recall. The total includes more than 7,400 DePuy ASR lawsuits that have been filed in a multidistrict litigation established in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio. (In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation – MDL 2197)

Documents disclosed so far in the course of the Los Angeles trial included a Johnson & Johnson analysis from 2011 that estimated nearly 40% of the ASR hip implants will fail within five years of surgery. According to The New York Times, jurors also viewed the videotaped deposition of a DePuy compliance manager who testified that the company had used inadequate or incorrect standards in trying to assess the risks associated with the implant before it came to market. A DePuy engineer who also testified last week told the jury that the company only tested the ASR’s performance on laboratory equipment at one angle of implantation, which the Plaintiff claims was inadequate.

The Los Angeles trial is just one of several scheduled to begin this year. The first trials in the federal DePuy ASR litigation are expected to get underway this spring. A second state-level trial is also slated to start later this month in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. (In Re DePuy ASR Hip Litigation, No. 10-L-10506) Juries will begin hearing claims in a consolidated litigation underway in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court in the fall. (In Re DePuy ASR Hip Implants Litigation, BER-L-3971-11)

Bernstein Liebhard LLP is actively filing claims in the federal DePuy ASR litigation. In addition, partner Jeffry S. Grand is serving on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the federal DePuy Pinnacle litigation underway in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, involving a metal-on-metal version of the Pinnacle Hip Replacement System that utilizes the Ultamet liner. Court documents indicate that the first DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit will go to trial in September 2014. (In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. Pinnacle Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation – MDL No. 2244)

Bernstein Liebhard LLP is offering free lawsuit consultations to anyone allegedly injured as a result of the DePuy ASR hip and the all-metal Pinnacle device. A wealth of information about the process for filing a DePuy ASR hip lawsuit is available on Bernstein Liebhard LLP’s website, http://www.consumerinjurylawyers.com/ . For additional information, please contact one of our attorneys by calling 877-779-1414.

*reuters.com/article/2013/02/01/us-jj-hip-trial-idUSBRE91019V20130201#.UQ2ffXiCMr4.wordpress

**nytimes.com/2013/02/01/business/hip-implants-risks-inadequately-assessed-depuy-report-found-in-2010.html?ref=health&_r=0

About Bernstein Liebhard LLP

Bernstein Liebhard LLP is a New York-based law firm exclusively representing injured persons in complex individual and class action lawsuits nationwide since 1993, including those who have been harmed by dangerous drugs, defective medical devices and consumer products. The firm has been named by The National Law Journal to the “Plaintiffs’ Hot List,” recognizing the top plaintiffs’ firms in the country, for the past 10 consecutive years.

Bernstein Liebhard LLP

10 East 40th Street

New York, New York 10016

(877) 779-1414

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING. © 2013 Bernstein Liebhard LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Bernstein Liebhard LLP, 10 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016, (212) 779-1414. The lawyer responsible for this advertisement in the State of Connecticut is Amy L. Abate. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

Contact Information:

Felecia L. Stern, Esq.

Bernstein Liebhard LLP

info(at)consumerinjurylawyers(dot)com

http://www.consumerinjurylawyers.com

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