The trial of plaintiff Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli started last week in federal court in Dallas, Texas. The Paoli trial is the first of more than 6,000 cases filed across the country that have been consolidated in a Multidistrict Litigation (“MDL”) before the Honorable Edward Kinkeade, United States District Court Judge in the Northern District of Texas.
Plaintiffs allege that the Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip replacement device, manufactured by DePuy, has a higher-than-normal failure rate. Additionally, some plaintiffs have complained that the device has caused metal poisoning, called metallosis, due to high levels of chromium and/or cobalt. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have argued that the Pinnacle hips suffered from design flaws that were ignored by DePuy. As reported by Bloomberg, the federal jury was told that DePuy’s attempts to convince doctors that the metal-on-metal version of its Pinnacle hip implant was safe amounted to “marketing run amok.” The decision reached by the jury in this trial could help determine the outcome of the entire centralized litigation.
If you have had a hip replacement, which used the DePuy Pinnacle device, you can contact Stark & Stark to speak to one of the Mass Tort Attorneys, free of charge, who can help assess any claims that you might have against DePuy.