On March 8th, 2013 a California jury awarded $8.3 million to a Montana man who was forced to undergo a revision surgery to remove the allegedly defective DePuy metal hip . This was a "huge opening win" for the plaintiffs' bar who are representing 1000's of plaintiffs in this "mass litigation".
Of course, as anyone who follows these cases knows , they ultimately end up being a war of attrition. Can the manufacturer survive the assault of body blows or will the plaintiffs run out of $ and desire first? High stakes for sure. From what I've read, plaintiffs will contine to use at trial, damaging emails from DePuy excutives wherein they recognized "major problems with the hips ", but continued to manufacture and sell them! That evidence will be hard to overcome.
My prediction; Four or five more verdicts for the plaintiffs and that dreaded "S word "will surface. Yes, you guessed it, " Settlement "! Remember, no need to feel sorry for DePuy.
Legal analyst Steve "Tort " Goldman reporting.
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