Stryker Hip Lawsuits Moving Toward More Settlement Negotiations

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Settlement negotiations in the Styker hip MDL pending in Minnesota federal court may begin soon thanks to a recent order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Franklin L. Noel.

Judge Noel, who is overseeing nearly 700 product liability lawsuits relating to the Stryker hip recall, ordered members of the Plaintiffs’ Lead Counsel Committee to confer with lawyers representing plaintiffs in the New Jersey Multicounty Litigation (“MCL”) where more than 1,600 Stryker hip lawsuits have been consolidated under U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank.

Stryker began offering settlements to hip replacement victims late last year in the Stryker hip MCL as part of an Early Mediation Program.

In an April 22 order, Judge Noel directed a group of four lawyers in the Minnesota Stryker hip MDL to confer with the New Jersey lawyers to “explore what, if anything, can be learned form the New Jersey court’s Early Mediation Program that may be applied usefully in this MDL.”

The Stryker hip lawsuits in both courts center on the Stryker Rejuvenate and AGB II Modular Hip System, which were recalled in 2012 following reports of early device failure.

Unlike other artificial hip replacement systems that use ceramic or polymer joints, the Stryker hips used metal interfacing surfaces. It was discovered in the Stryker hip recall that metal-on-metal joints can grind against each other, releasing tiny metal particles and metal ions into the patient’s blood and surrounding tissue. These hip replacement complicattions can cause a host of side effects, including metal ion poisoning, cancer, and pseudotumors—painful growths surrounding the implant.

Additionally, metal-on-metal implants are alleged to fail more often, requiring revision hip surgery. Revision surgery is the process of replacing an artificial hip joint. Revision hip surgery can be more complicated that the original hip replacement, since there is typically inflammation and scarring from the failed implant. On top of this, there is less of the original bone to work with.

The majority of Stryker hip lawsuits filed across the country have been consolidated in the New Jersey MCL. New Jersey is the American address for the company that makes the Stryker artificial hips, and there have been a large number of Stryker lawsuits settled through court mediation. The hope is that by coordinating with lawyers involved in these Stryker settlements, the process of discovery or evidence gathering and presenting can be streamlined for the Minnesota plaintiffs. This will hopefully inform bellwether cases, the first individual Stryker lawsuits within the MDL that go to trial. Bellwether cases are an important type of case within the MDL. The outcome of bellwether cases helps decide critical aspects of the rest of the cases in the MDL.

Judge Noel will hold a status conference on June 12, 2014, for the Minnesota Stryker hip lawsuits. The first bellwether trials will be held in 2015.

The Minnesota Stryker MDL is In re: Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2441, District of Minnesota.

The New Jersey Stryker MCL is In Re Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Stem and the ABG II Modular Hip Stem Litigation, No. 296, Superior Court of New Jersey, Bergen County.

Join a Free Metal Hip Replacement Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or a loved one had a metal-on-metal hip implant that failed or caused serious complications, you may be entitled to compensation. Hip replacement lawsuits are being filed now against multiple companies, including Stryker, Biomet, DePuy, Zimmer, and Wright. See if you qualify to take legal action by obtaining a free and confidential case evaluation now:

Oops! We could not locate your form.