North Carolina Product Liability Lawyer Blog

Testosterone: The Story of A (Mostly) Unnecessary Drug Therapy

Published on: October 7, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

Part 1

Can you imagine the excitement from the marketing department when the drug company chemists walked in and said: “all right everyone, we have a new product, an easy-to-use roll-on gel that will increase a man’s energy, improve muscle tone, help him lose weight, and reawaken his sexual interest.” I’ve never taken a marketing class in my life, and I could sell that product.

And sell it the drug companies did. Billions of dollars of it. I’m sure most of you recall the commercials about testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) from a few years ago. If not you can still find them on YouTube. The commercials and the advertising campaigns targeted men from early middle age through old age, and made some statement similar to this:

Risperdal, Gynecomastia, and the $2,500,000.00 Jury Award

Published on: October 2, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

This is the story of the lawsuit involving Austin Pledger, an autistic boy who grew large female breasts as a result of taking Johnson & Johnson’s antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

In most product liability cases, injured persons bring claims based on one of three legal theories: (1) a defect in manufacturing the product, (2) a defect in the design of the product, or (3) failure to warn the consumer of the potential for injury. It was for this last legal claim, the “failure to warn,” which attorneys for Austin Pledger and his family brought a legal action against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Austin Pledger and Risperdal

Risperdal and Gynecomastia: the Growth of Female Breasts on Boys

Published on: September 30, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

Unless you do not own a television, you have likely seen the endless parade of commercials for drugs in this country. Apparently there is a medication that can fix any problem you have–hair loss, high cholesterol, even of course the dreaded erectile dysfunction. Drugs make corporations billions of dollars each year. If they didn’t you wouldn’t have to explain to your eight-year old why that couple on TV is lounging in two claw foot bath tubs on a mountaintop.

A major problem with a pharmaceutical industry that generates billions of dollars a year is that many corporations will do just about anything to get into that market and get a share of those drug profits. As a result, too often companies will rush a drug onto the market before it is fully tested, then market the drug aggressively, even for “off-label” uses, simply to increase profit margins. Even an established corporation like Johnson & Johnson is not immune. As reported by Stephen Brill, 91% of Johnson & Johnson profits derive from the sale of expensive medical devices like artificial hips and knees and pharmaceutical drug sales.

Risperdal is a prime example of a drug that generated billions of dollars in sales but also left thousands of people permanently disfigured or otherwise injured.

Depuy ASR Hip Settlement Part B “Extraordinary Injury Fund”

Published on: September 25, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

Part 3

There are two key areas of compensation under the Depuy ASR Hip Settlement Agreement: The Part A Base Award, which we talked about in the last post, and the Part B Award, which awards additional compensation under Depuy’s “Extraordinary Injury Fund” (“EIF”). Let’s get to those “extraordinary injuries.”

Bilateral Implants

Depuy ASR Hip Settlement Agreements: The Part A “Base” Award

Published on: September 21, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

Part 2

In Part 1 we talked about the process for determining if you would be eligible to participate in the Depuy ASR Hip Settlement. I remind you that although the deadlines for participation in the first two Depuy ASR settlements have passed, people are still filing lawsuits against Depuy Orthopaedics and Johnson & Johnson. More settlement agreements will likely be reached in the future, because many people who have been injured by the metal-on-metal Depuy ASR hip have not been compensated for their injuries. When those new settlement agreements are established, they will likely look much like the first two agreements. So it’s helpful to review those settlement terms.

OK, so picking up where we left off in Part 1: Let’s say you are a patient in the United States and that the Depuy ASR artificial hip system was implanted in your body. It failed. You then had a “revision” surgery to remove the failed hip components. Thus, you would be “eligible” to participate in the settlement. You then hired a lawyer who filed suit in federal court in your state, then properly transferred the case to the MDL in Ohio. From that point, your attorney would then submit all documentation relating to the MDL and its “Case Management Orders.” To participate in the settlement, you and your attorney would need to submit all enrollment forms, claim forms, and other required submissions.

Risperdal: The Tragic Consequences of Aggressive Drug Marketing

Published on: September 16, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

I need to pause for a moment in discussing artificial hip litigation and draw your attention to a shocking series of articles on the Johnson & Johnson drug, Risperdal. Steven Brill has written a compelling series titled America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker. Brill makes the argument that Johnson & Johnson pushed the prescription drug Risperdal onto the elderly and children, for all manner of unapproved uses, with devastating results. The series began yesterday on Huffington Post and can be found here.

Risperdal is an anti-psychotic drug that was first approved for use in 1993 to manage the symptoms of schizophrenia. In the years that followed, Johnson & Johnson pressed for FDA approval to treat other conditions, such as bipolar disorder and autism, and to permit use in children. More recently, Risperdal has been prescribed for adults and children to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression. Treating these conditions using Risperdal is considered “off label” use, which is the use of a drug in a manner unapproved by the FDA. Off-label use could be using the drug to treat a condition which is not authorized by the FDA, or prescribing the drug to an unapproved age group.

Tragically, Risperdal has had horrific side effects in some cases, particularly in children. Among other symptoms, Risperdal can cause the growth of breasts in male children, a condition known as gynecomastia.

Depuy ASR Hip Settlement Agreements: What It Means For You

Published on: September 14, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

Part 1

After years of litigation and negotiation among the plaintiffs and defendants, the first Depuy ASR hip settlement agreement was reached on November 19, 2013. This settlement document, with all the exhibits, was 181 pages long. The first settlement agreement required that you must have undergone revision surgery on or before August 31, 2013. A second settlement agreement was reached on March 2, 2015, which allowed participation in the settlement if you received a revision surgery after August 31, 2013 but no later than January 31, 2015. The key terms in the second settlement agreement are the same as those in the first settlement. The agreements take a long time read through, digest, and understand. In this post and those that follow, I am going to help you work through the settlement language.

Please note: The deadlines for participation in both Depuy settlement agreements have passed. At the moment there are no settlement agreements in place in which you may enroll or participate now or in the immediate future. However, there should be new settlement agreements down the road for those of you who undergo a revision surgery after January 31, 2015. Further, you still have options if you had a revision surgery before January 31, 2015 but simply missed the deadlines for enrollment (which I discuss below). I will keep you posted if and when a third settlement agreement is reached.

Pain and Suffering Damages in a Personal Injury Case

Published on: September 11, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

I appreciate this subject because in many ways it is mystifying. After all, how in the world can an injured person or an attorney or a jury decide the monetary value of the pain and suffering from a broken leg or a failed artificial hip? If you break your collarbone in a car crash, a crash caused by the negligence of another driver, what is that broken collarbone worth? Is it $75,000? $150,000? More?

Pain and Suffering Damages

This post focuses on one specific area of damages: “pain and suffering” (also known as non-economic damages), which is one classification of recovery intended to compensate an injured person for the actual physical, mental, and emotional suffering caused by the act of negligence. There are other types of money damages in a personal injury case, such as “compensatory damages” for money lost from time out of work, property damages for loss of or damage to an automobile, out of pocket expenses (like the purchase of a wheelchair), and other losses. But those are subjects for other posts. This post will look briefly at pain and suffering damages.

“Medical Funding” Serious Threat to Your Product Liability Settlement

Published on: September 8, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

I received a court filing from the Depuy ASR multidistrict litigation last week, and it reminded me to caution you about the serious financial threat you can face when dealing with artificial hip failures and hip litigation (and of course, other medical device failures like artificial knees and transvaginal mesh). Sadly, this threat comes from third-party companies that appear legitimate, even helpful, but mainly have a naked profit motive for getting involved in your case. These companies often cash in unfairly from all the suffering you endured from you failed artificial hip or failed medical device.

What is Medical Funding?

Think of it as a lawsuit loan, or a loan against your future settlement recovery. Medical Funding is a medical care financial assistance “service,” and occurs when a third-party company offers to pay the medical bills of a person who is injured by the negligence of others. This could be a car crash case, a failed medical device like a hip, or any other situation where the negligence of someone else caused the injury. If you accept the offer, the company will pay the medical care provider—the surgeon, the hospital, etc.—a percentage of the provider’s billed charges, but usually more than the provider would have been paid by private health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. The company then receives an “assignment” from the medical provider that allows the company (potentially) to receive the full amount of the billed charges, which are often much higher than what the company paid for the medical care and higher than what private insurance would have paid. The third-party company will then file a medical expense “lien” on the proceeds of the person’s settlement or jury award.

Depuy ASR Hip Settlement: Five Key Benefits

Published on: September 4, 2015 | By Clay Hodges

In Part 1, we began to look at some of the factors you should consider before you decide to accept a settlement from Depuy or not. Now let’s dig a little deeper . . .

Two Recent Depuy ASR Jury Verdicts

As the Depuy ASR Hip Settlement was being negotiated, two cases involving the alleged failure of the Depuy ASR hip were tried to a jury, one in Los Angeles and one in Chicago. In Los Angeles, a jury awarded $8,338,000.00 to Loren Kransky, who suffered from extremely high metal levels in his blood (the jury awarded $338,000 in medical expenses and $8,000,000 in pain and suffering damages but did not award punitive damages). In Chicago several weeks after the Kransky trial, a jury found that Depuy was not negligent and that the injury to Carol Strum was more likely caused by her unique health issues, particularly her sensitivity to elevated metal levels in the blood. In the Chicago case, therefore, Ms. Strum received no money at all.

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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.