Hip Replacement Lawsuit Depositions to Provide Information for Trials

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The DePuy hip replacement lawsuit multidistrict litigation (MDL) process is steadily progressing. Recently, the two sides began discussing scheduling bellwether trial dates, with some predictions placing them at the beginning of next year. However, another set of events that will begin soon are the hip replacement lawsuit depositions of key figures involved in the design, manufacture, advertising, sale, and recall of the DePuy ASR hip replacements.

Executives and Orthopedists to be Deposed

In a deposition, a person gives sworn testimony about facts related to the case to the parties’ lawyers, and a reporter produces written transcripts for the parties to use for themselves. The judge is not involved. Depositions are part of the discovery process that takes place before the parties argue summary judgment motions, go to trial, or negotiate settlements. Parties depose individuals to glean information that they can use in their cases.

There is no public list of individuals the parties will involve in the hip replacement lawsuit depositions, but aside from a few DePuy executives, one person appears likely to testify: Dr. Thomas Schmalzried, one of the ASR’s developers.

Dr. Schmalzried’s name began appearing after the February British Medical Journal article on metal-on-metal hip replacements discussed his participation in the ASR’s marketing. In particular, he drafted a document titled, “Setting the record straight on metal hypersensitivity,” which DePuy then furnished to its sales staff to use in convincing orthopedists that the hip replacements were safe. Dr. Schmalzried, it turns out, received $2.4 million as a paid consultant for DePuy.

Although he is a named defendant in at least one hip replacement lawsuit, Dr. Schmalzried has recently modified his stance on the ASR, and at the February 2012 annual conference of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons he gave a presentation titled, “Metal-Metal Bearings: Risk Factors for Failure and Timing of Intervention.” Dr. Schmalzried discussed “adverse local tissue reactions” caused by the ASR and its failure to “osseointegrate,” references to two types of hip replacement problems.

RLG Advocates for Those Injured by All-Metal Hip Replacements

Although the hip replacement lawsuit depositions are unlikely to be exciting spectacles, the statements DePuy’s executives and the ASR’s developers make will be carefully noted by recipients’ hip replacement lawyers. Nevertheless, the MDL process is going forward, and with bellwether trials looming on the horizon, it’s important for anyone who lacks legal counsel to find one as soon as possible. Those who proceed alone against DePuy risk receiving less because the amount of compensation from a hip replacement lawsuit might be greater than what the company is willing to provide via its recall reimbursement program. If you received an ASR, click on this link or call 1-877-312-3274 and a hip recall lawyer from the Rottenstein Law Group will call you to give you a free, confidential consultation.