Search results for: pinnacle hip

Sure, it was enjoyable to read In re DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., Pinnacle Hip Implant Product Liability Litigation, ___ F.3d ___, 2018 WL 1954759 (5th Cir. April 25, 2018) (“Pinnacle Hip”), to see plaintiffs’ counsel hoisted on their own petard of improper and prejudicial evidence and arguments.  But there’s more to Pinnacle Hip…

On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit was finally able speak to what’s been going on in a Dallas courtroom that has racked up over $1.7 billion—that’s billion—in jury verdicts over the last two years in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL. And the Fifth Circuit entered the room loudly. It ordered a new trial of the…

When we described for you (here and here) the briefing on the appeal of the half-billion-dollar verdict in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL’s second bellwether trial, we left out maybe the most intriguing issue. This is one the likes of which we have not seen before: the case of the unpaid experts who…

As our guest post predicted in last Monday, even Hurricane Harvey could not delay the Fifth Circuit long in deciding the Pinnacle Hip MDL mandamus petition.  Its decision, denying mandamus but mostly agreeing with the defendant’s substantive position, is available here.  In re Depuy Orthopaedics, Inc., ___ F.3d ___, 2017 WL 3768923 (5th…

As we publish this post, lawyers in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL are gathering in the Bob Casey Courthouse in Houston or in coffee shops, breakfast cafés or law offices nearby awaiting the argument to come.  At 10:00 a.m., the arguing starts.  The Fifth Circuit will officially begin to consider whether to issue a…

This post comes from the Cozen O’Connor side of the blog.

After two months, the third bellwether trial in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL is coming to an end. The jury heard closing arguments yesterday and began deliberating late in the afternoon. They start up again this morning.

Much like the second bellwether trial, this trial was not without controversy. The signs were ominous before it began.  Two weeks before trial, the court issued a sua sponte order consolidating six separate plaintiffs for the trial, close to any defendant’s worst nightmare. The court also ruled that plaintiffs could serve notices that would require company witnesses who were outside the geographic reach of the court to nonetheless testify live via satellite. Defendants could not substitute trial depositions for the satellite testimony, even though trial depositions had already been taken, complete with cross-examination of the witnesses by plaintiffs’ counsel. This order was sufficiently controversial that a Fifth Circuit judge, while concurring with his colleagues’ decision to reject defendants’ writ of mandamus challenging the order, chose to issue a one-sentence concurring opinion saying that the MDL judge got it wrong.…

Continue Reading Buckle Up: The Jury Is Out in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL’s Third Bellwether Trial

With one sentence, a circuit judge signaled yesterday that the Fifth Circuit is watching with acute interest what’s going on in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL in Dallas:

Although the district court misapplied Rules 43(a) and 45(c), I concur in the denial of the petition for a writ of mandamus.

Oh my. While that may not be a shot across the bow of the MDL bellwether process, it’s an attention-grabber.

Technically, this was a loss for the defendants. They asked the Fifth Circuit to direct the MDL court to vacate an order authorizing plaintiffs to subpoena company witnesses no matter where they are in the country to testify at a bellwether trial via satellite or other contemporaneous transmission. And the Fifth Circuit denied the petition. But petitions for writs of mandamus are always lost. The possibility of victory is so slim that the legal background sections of most petitions actually find it useful to argue that it is untrue that writs of mandamus are “never” issued. It’s only “hardly ever.”…

Continue Reading The Defense’s Mandamus Petition in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL Yields an Unusual Victory

Here we go. Again. The third bellwether trial in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL starts on October 3 (less than two weeks away), and the parties began picking a jury two days ago. The lawyers are, no doubt, hunkered down in their hotels and war rooms preparing for a trial that could last through the start of the holidays. And much of the mass tort world will be watching. That’s because the jury in the last bellwether trial came back with an incredible half-billion-dollar verdict at the end of a multi-plaintiff trial in which the court issued a long series of controversial evidentiary and procedural rulings.

And now, even before opening statements, there are ominous signs for the defense at this third bellwether trial. Three days ago, the court issued an order sua sponte—that is, with no briefing—confirming that it is consolidating six different plaintiffs at this one trial. That’s a lot of plaintiffs and no doubt a lot of differences. It’s hard to imagine jurors effectively keeping straight the case-specific evidence presented by each of these half-dozen plaintiffs, all while trying to sift through and understand mountains of complex scientific and medical information and avoid allowing their feelings as to any one plaintiff to affect their judgment as to the others. Without even considering the facts of the cases, a six-plaintiff trial is not good for defendants. There’s a reason that plaintiffs’ lawyers prefer multi-plaintiff trials and that defendants do not.…

Continue Reading Here Comes the Next Bellwether Trial in the Pinnacle Hip Implant MDL

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