DePuy Orthopaedics issued a recall on 93,000 units of their ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System in August 2010 because the devices were found to be defective. Patients who have been affected experience symptoms such as pain, inflammation, loss of mobility and metal toxicity. An estimated 11,000 recipients are expected to need a revision surgery just within 5 years after being implanted with the devices. The hip replacement recall withdrawal prompted patients to file lawsuits.

Various leadership positions were already assigned to lawyers who have vied for the roles that the Multidistrict Litigation needs for the DePuy lawsuits. Judge Katz have assigned these positions: Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, Science Committee, Discovery Committee, and Law and Motions Committee. The Executive Committee will then decide who will take the positions for the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel and Plaintiffs’ State Liaison Counsel.

For those who have been following the DePuy case, you may have already known that an MDL ruling was given for all federal lawsuits involved. Assigned to the case was Judge David A. Katz of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo. To know which aspect of the case will be assigned to, an initial status conference was held on January 26. December 23 is the last day of filing for applications to the leadership positions. The attorneys were each given two minutes to state their reasons why they should be given the said positions.

The purpose of the Multidistrict Litigation is to have ease of access among plaintiffs to relevant pretrial information. Considering the number of recipients filing for DePuy lawsuits, an MDL would centralize the process to make for an easier litigation procedure. And since the cases vary, plaintiffs can adjust the information to conform to their individual case as opposed to having received a single amount that one would get in class action suits. Class action cases would not benefit as much as individual lawsuits would in an MDL.

Based on the DePuy lawsuit's progress, legal experts now believe that the cases could reach 4,000 in number. { If you have been affected by the defects of the DePuy products, you should contact a lawyer immediately. More information regarding the leadership roles is available in the DePuy hip replacement website.

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