First Federal trial over DePuy hip replacement device set to begin in Cleveland.

The National Law Journal (9/3, Bronstad) reports that the first Federal trial over DePuy Orthopaedics Inc.’s metal-on-metal hip replacement device, “which is the subject of about 10,000 lawsuits across the country, is scheduled to begin on September 9 in Cleveland.” The case, “brought by a woman in Rochester, N.Y., who claims to have a dislocated hip and was forced to undergo surgery to remove her ASR XL hip implant, will be the first bellwether proceeding to face jurors of nearly 8,000 cases coordinated in multidistrict litigation before U.S. District Judge David Katz. Prospective jurors are expected to be brought in on Tuesday.” Ellen Relkin of New York’s Weitz & Luxenberg, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs’ steering committee in the ASR multidistrict litigation against DePuy, said “We believe this is an appropriate case for bellwether trial since there is a concerning number of re-revisions among ASR patients resulting from injury to the tissue and muscle from metal debris and the two prior trials did not involve re-revisions.”