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Postponed DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Failure Trial. DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Failure Trial Update. The latest DePuy Pinnacle hip failure trial which was set to start this week with the fourth bellwether trial has been postponed until later in September.

Postponed DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Failure Trial

DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Failure Trial Update. Federal Judge Ed Kinkeade delayed the upcoming DePuy Pinnacle hip implant bellwether trial after a split federal appeals panel requested that he halt the proceedings due to a “grave error.”

In the August 31st opinion, two of three judges on a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refused to grant a petition for writ of mandamus filed by DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. to halt the trial.

But two of the three judges indicated that U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade committed a “grave error” in allowing certain trials to take place before him, including the latest one involving eight New York plaintiffs.

DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Failure Trials

In May 2011, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized pretrial proceedings in the cases before Judge Kinkeade in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

Johnson & Johnson has lost the last three out of four bellwether trials and the company is appealing the massive verdicts, urging the Court to remand thousands of cases back to individual U.S. District Courts nationwide for trial dates.

There have been no settlements to date over the DePuy Orthopaedics’ Pinnacle Hip Replacement system, and Johnson & Johnson has vowed that it has no intention of settling hip replacement injury claims for patients who have developed side effects with DePuy Pinnacle implants.

DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement system linked to implant failure

Over the past several years medical studies have found that some all-metal implants can release dangerous amounts of toxic cobalt and chromium metal ions particles locally into the hip joint and the bloodstream, causing severe local tissue reactions and premature failure complications that require painful revision surgery to remove and replace the implant.

Juries found that DePuy and Johnson & Johnson have negligently designed the hip implant, and failed to warn surgeons about dangerous conditions related to the implant. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling the devices in 2013 after the FDA issued a safety warning about artificial-hip side effects.

DePuy: No recall over its Pinnacle/Ultamet liner system

This is not the first ride at the rodeo for Johnson and Johnson and its subsidiary DePuy, the makers of the Pinnacle/Ultamet liner system.

DePuy announced a global hip replacement recall for its ASR line of metal implants in August 2010, after worldwide reports of metallosis and premature hip failure. Johnson & Johnson in 2013 had agreed to pay at least $2.5 billion to settle more than 9,000 lawsuits over DePuy ASR hip replacements, which feature a metal-on-metal design that has been described as a “substantial equivalent” to the Pinnacle hip

Since the premature failure and metal toxicity rates are similar between the two implant designs, many folks now question why the company has not taken similar action in regards to the Pinnacle/Ultamet liner combination. Cynics point to the billions of dollars that Johnson and Johnson have made in profits from the DePuy Pinnacle line of implants as being the motivating factor.

DePuy Pinnacle Verdicts

The first Texas DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Trial in 2014 ended with a win for the defense.

In the second Texas DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip Trial in 2016, the five plaintiffs were awarded a total of $500 million. The jury award was reduced to $151 million, in order to comply with Texas law governing punitive damages.

In the third bellwether trial in 2017 the six damaged Pinnacle patients were awarded more than $1 billion. That judgment was later reduced to $543 million.

Injured by a failed DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip?

If you think you may have a DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip and are experiencing pain caused by metal corrosion or have suffered a hip failure requiring full revision and emergency care, please call Dr. Shezad Malik Law Firm at 888-210-9693.

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