Jury Awards $8.3 Million in First DePuy ASR Trial
In the first trial against DePuy Orthopedics that has gone to trial, a California jury has awarded $8.3 million to the plaintiff, Mr. Loren Kransky. More than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed for complications caused by the DePuy ASR hip, and this result is cause for cautious optimism among those whose lives have been turned upside down by this defective product. We have written many times in this space about the nature of the problems caused by metal-on-metal hips, of which the DePuy ASR was perhaps the most widely used.
The jury awarded Mr. Kransky $38,236 in economic damages, and $8 million in non-economic damages. They did not find for punitive damages against DePuy, although members of the jury have since come forward expressing the opinion that punitive damages were called for in this case. Hopefully the juries in upcoming DePuy ASR trials will find for punitive damages, since corporate wrong-doers increasingly seem to receive only the messages that are delivered straight to their bank accounts.
When their own internal tests revealed that the DePuy ASR was failing within 5 years 40% of the time ( 8 times the normal “acceptable” rate of failure), executives wrote in their internal emails that eventually the product would need to be re-designed but the short term goal was to “manage perceptions.” Colling Gilbert Wright are representing individuals suffering from complications from the DePuy ASR hip, as well as other metal-on-metal hip replacements. If you believe that yourself or a loved one may have a potential product liability claim against the manufacturer of a hip replacement, chat with us online at www.thefloridafirm.com or call us today, for a free consultation.