Judge Slashes Billion Dollar Pinnacle Verdict in Half
A Texas judge slashes a $1 billion dollar verdict by $500 million dollars in the most recent Pinnacle hip replacement trial. Judge Ed Kinkeade based his decision on “constitutional considerations that limit the amount a plaintiff may recover in punitive damages,” according to Reuters. In December a jury originally ordered Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of the Pinnacle metal on metal hip, to pay over $1 billion to six California plaintiffs who experienced tissue death and bone erosion from their hip implant. The judge upheld the jury’s findings that Johnson & Johnson designed a defective implant and failed to warn doctors and patients of the risks.
There are still almost 9,000 court cases pending, accusing Johnson & Johnson of marketing the hips with known flaws. The Pinnacle was taken off the market in 2013 when the Federal Food and Drug Administration tightened up regulations regarding replacement hips. That same year, the manufacturer paid $2.5 billion to settle over 7,000 lawsuits related to another one of its metal-on-metal hip devices, the DePuy ASR.
Mctlaw Defective Hip Litigation
Mctlaw has focused its practice on defective hip replacement cases for over a decade. In 2008 our law firm filed the first lawsuit in the United States involving a modern generation metal-on-metal hip replacement. If you think you have a defective metal-on-metal hip replacement, please contact us for a free evaluation of your case at 888-952-5242 or fill out the form below.
