North Carolina Product Liability Lawyer Blog

Jury Awards Astonishing $502 Million to Five Depuy Pinnacle Hip Victims

Published on: March 22, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

The ground moved on March 17, 2016. In a Dallas Texas courtroom a federal jury ordered Depuy Orthopaedics and Johnson & Johnson to pay five unfairly injured people $502 million dollars, including a stunning $360 million in punitive damages. The jury based this award on findings that Depuy hid critical defects in the design of the Depuy Pinnacle artificial hip system and hid these risks from doctors and patients.

I’ve written about this case before (In re: DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. Pinnacle Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, 11-md-02244, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas)). Five plaintiffs (Aoki, Christopher, Greer, Klusmann, Peterson) agreed to have their cases tried together. This was not a “class action” lawsuit. Rather, because the five individual cases had sufficient similarities, the judge, parties, and attorneys agreed to try all five cases in one jury trial. The single jury heard all the evidence in these cases, but Judge Ed Kinkeade instructed the jury to consider liability in each individual case, and to award separate damages for each plaintiff. Boy did they.

$360,000,000 in Punitive Damages

Five patients implanted with the Depuy Pinnacle artificial hip were awarded $502,000,000.00. The jury concluded that the Pinnacle hip sold by Depuy was defective and that Depuy knew about the flaws but did not warn patients and their doctors of the risks. The jury awarded $142,000,000.00 in actual damages and $360,000,000.00 in punitive damages.

Depuy is owned by parent company Johnson & Johnson, who will be on the hook for paying this judgment.

Paying Your Bills While Your Product Liability Case Is Litigated

Published on: March 15, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

I get it. When you get injured, you almost immediately begin to worry about money. It is completely rational. If my client is a car salesperson and has severe pain after standing for more than an hour, he may worry that his failed artificial hip surgery could cause him to lose his job. If another client is a graphic designer, and a car crash results in a broken arm, the client may wonder how she will do her graphic design work at a computer or work space. Beyond concerns about handling job duties, there will be immediate financial pressures. I wrote about handling medical bills in a product liability case here. But there are of course other bills to be paid: mortgage payments or rent, food, utilities, and other expenses of living. It can seem overwhelming.

Try to Get Through This Difficult Period Without Obtaining Loans

I know, I know, easy for me to say. And frankly you are right. No one ever wakes up and says, “today is a great day for me to enter into a ruinous loan I will never be able to pay back.” I understand that most people attempt to exhaust every other funding source before looking for third-party funding during a desperate financial period. But I am going to say it anyway: exhaust every other funding source before looking for third-party funding. Call your parents, your kids, your friends, anyone who might help you get through the difficult financial period you face when waiting for a product liability or other personal injury case to resolve.

Paying Medical Bills As Part of Your Product Liability Case

Published on: March 9, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

“How am I supposed to pay all these medical bills?”

This is usually one of the first questions I get from people injured by a failed medical device. Typically a failed device like a hip or knee causes all kinds of health problems for a person. Often a revision surgery is necessary, and sometimes several surgeries. All this extra medical care is expensive. It also requires large amounts of time to rehabilitate and recover, which causes substantial time away from work. Some of my clients lose their jobs, or are forced to quit because they can no longer do the work. Meanwhile, the bills from surgeons and hospitals continue to pile up.

Medical Providers Expect Payment

First, no matter who is at fault for your failed medical device or harmful drug, the doctors and hospitals who provide you treatment will expect prompt payment of their bills. After surgeries, these bills often come fast and furiously. If you have health insurance you will need to arrange with the physician and/or the hospital ahead of time to file a claim for payment. But even if you have health insurance you will most likely be responsible for payment of a significant portion of the costs of your medical care (through co-pays, deductibles, and/or percentages of the medical bill not covered by health insurance). The surgeon or hospital will expect you to pay these amounts promptly.

So what can you do?

Employment Issues When an Artificial Hip Fails: My Guest Post

Published on: March 8, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

I was asked by an employment lawyer in Arlington, Virginia to write a guest article on employment issues that often arise when a client’s artificial hip fails. My post was published today. You can check it out here: Two Key Protections When You Lose Your Job or Wages Following Artificial Hip Failure.

As you can read in the article, a client typically has to deal with physical challenges and employment issues when an artificial hip or other medical device fails. It can be financially devastating to be physically incapacitated and unable to return to your normal work hours. I have had clients who had to resign their positions because they could no longer sit at a desk or stand in a car lot for long hours. But there are ways to protect yourself when you are in this position, and you should be aware of them. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from firing you simply for having a disability. Also, you can and should bring a claim for lost earnings in your product liability lawsuit for a failed medical device or failed drug. You can read about lost earnings claims in the context of the Depuy ASR Hip Settlement here.

Depuy ASR Artificial Hip “Part B” Settlement for Future Injuries

Published on: March 4, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

Over the past several weeks we have reviewed the Depuy ASR Settlement Agreement, and recently the Part B extraordinary injury money awards that are available to qualified injured people. You can read about the Part B “Extraordinary Injury Fund” (“EIF”) here, and about Part B “Miscellaneous Injuries” here.

In this post I want to talk about the “Future Matrix,” which is a section in both settlement agreements that provides a pathway for individuals to pursue additional compensation when a problem arises after the original settlement has been signed and initial payments have been made. It can be a very useful option for recovering additional money if a serious health problem arises after the initial settlement has been paid and resolved. Let’s jump in.

Depuy ASR Hip: “Part B” Payments for Lost Earnings, Young Age, Etc.

Published on: February 23, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

In previous articles we looked at the Depuy ASR Settlement Agreement compensation framework. We examined the Part A base award here, and looked at the Part B “Extraordinary Injury Fund” (“EIF”) here. Just to recap, if you received a Depuy ASR hip in a hip replacement surgery, and it later “failed,” causing you to need revision surgery, you likely qualified for participation in the Depuy ASR settlement program.

The Part A award was one monetary award based on having to undergo hip revision surgery. The default Part A amount was $250,000.00, and this figure could be reduced by certain factors, such as smoking, obesity, advanced age, and length of time between original surgery and revision.

The Part B awards were built around “extraordinary injury,” and included compensation to people suffering from less common bad results, such as heart attack, stroke, foot drop, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, dislocation, or infection.

In this post I want to drill down a bit on one of the vague areas of potential compensation in the Part B “matrix.” The Depuy Settlement Agreement designates an area for compensation for miscellaneous injury, which is referred to as Matrix Level VII (Discretionary). Let’s look at a few examples:

Transvaginal Mesh Case Yields $13,500,000.00 Jury Verdict

Published on: February 19, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

Carlino et al. v. Ethicon, Inc., et al. (Pa. Comm. Pls. Ct., Philadelphia County)

Product: Gynemesh TVT

Jury Award: $13,500,000.00 ($3,250,000.00 in compensatory damages; $250,000.00 to husband for loss of consortium; $10,000,000.00 in punitive damages)

Date of Jury Verdict: February 10, 2016

This case was brought by Sharon Carlino and her husband, Charles Carlino. The couple sued Ethicon, Inc. and parent company Johnson & Johnson on several claims, the main one being that Ethicon failed to warn Ms. Carlino and her doctors of the transvaginal mesh product’s risks and potential dangers.

Corporations Want You to Believe Lawsuits Are Frivolous

Published on: February 17, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

Abraham Lincoln had this to say about frivolous lawsuits: “Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.” I agree.

I agree with Lincoln that we should never “stir up” litigation, for many reasons, the main one being that “creating” litigation is simply the wrong thing to do, it is harmful to the client, and it creates ill-will and distrust in the world and within the legal profession. But I also agree with Lincoln for completely selfish reasons: it does not lead to good results and it can easily destroy a person’s law practice. Reports of the filing of frivolous lawsuits are greatly exaggerated.

Five Important Ways You Will Participate In Your Product Liability Lawsuit

Published on: February 10, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

I have never met a client who “likes” lawsuits. Frankly they stink. Lawsuits are difficult, invasive, frustrating, potentially embarrassing exercises. And litigation is slow—a lawsuit against a medical device maker can take a year or two or longer to resolve, and if the case goes to trial, it can take several years to reach the jury’s verdict. The most important thing you will do in any case is select an attorney. I write about choosing and working with an attorney here and here and here. Let me remind you that you do not want to represent yourself in a product liability case. In some limited areas of law representing yourself may make sense, but you do not want to start a legal battle alone against a large corporation in a product liability case. So choose a good lawyer first.

Once a lawsuit is filed in your product liability case, you will have to participate actively. You will be involved in dozens of discussions, decisions, and tasks over the life of a lawsuit, and there are five big ways you will contribute to winning your case.

Five Things You Should Do If You Were Injured by Transvaginal Mesh

Published on: February 5, 2016 | By Clay Hodges

For thousands of women, transvaginal mesh has caused more problems than it has solved. Women with TVM have reported infections, urinary problems, pain during sexual intercourse, scarring, bladder perforation, recurrence of pelvic organ prolapse or incontinence, and other problems. If you have a transvaginal mesh implant and now suffer unusual pain or other symptoms, you need to take action quickly.

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★★★★★

I was involved in a case for the faulty hip replacements. Clay Hodges represented me. I can't say enough about how much he has helped me. Clay was able to win multiple settlements on my behalf with most of them being the maximum amount able to be awarded. Matt J.

Clay, thank you sir for making a disheartening experience at least palatable, you and your staff were honest, caring and understanding through the entire process of my wife’s hip replacements, while monetary settlements never make the pain and suffering end, it sometimes is the only way people can fight back to right a wrong. J. V.

We are absolutely pleased with how Clay Hodges handled my husband’s hip replacement claim. He always kept us informed of the progress. And, his work resulted in a settlement which we are extremely pleased. Thank you, Clay! Carol L. & Norm L.