DePuy Pinnacle Litigation Update

A DePuy Pinnacle Multi-district litigation (“MDL”) status conference was held on September 10, 2013 at the U.S. District courthouse in Dallas, Texas. The conference was held before the Honorable Ed Kinkeade, the judge overseeing the federal multidistrict litigation against DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, Inc. regarding the DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement devices.

Biomet

DePuy Pinnacle Litigation Overview

An overview of the current status of the litigation was presented at the conference.  There are approximately 4922 cases currently pending in the MDL.  The discovery process is well under way with millions of pages of documents produced and over 60 depositions taken.

Bellwether Selection Process

The parties recently submitted position papers regarding the bellwether selection process.  Plaintiffs argued that six cases should be selected and tried at one time in September, 2014.  Defendants argued that only one bellwether case should be tried at a time.  They further proposed that Defendants choose the first bellwether case from the pool of four cases nominated by Plaintiff.  It is anticipated that Judge Kinkeade will issue an Order soon regarding his decision on the bellwether trial selection process.