On April 25, 2012, Judge Martinotti hosted a joint MDL/State Case Management Conference in Bergen County, New Jersey, along with the Honorable David A. Katz, U.S.D.J., who is presiding over the federal cases in the MDL in Ohio. As previously discussed, the centralization of the state and federal cases will streamline the lawsuits, allowing the parties to avoid duplicative discovery and inconsistent rulings from different judges.

At the conference, Judge Martinotti, noted that 275 cases have been filed to date in New Jersey.  This number is likely to increase throughout the year as people learn about the pending litigation. Additionally, there have been approximately 3,300 DePuy ASR cases filed nationwide, with 900 law firms representing the plaintiffs.  To date, there have been over 33 million documents produced in discovery. Judge Martinotti advised that the first trials are currently scheduled to begin in Nevada and Maryland before the end of 2012.  Furthermore, Judge Martinotti anticipates that the first New Jersey trials will begin in April or May of 2013. The next Case Management Conference has been scheduled for late June 2012.

If you have had a hip replacement, which used the DePuy ASR or Pinnacle devices, you can contact Stark & Stark and speak to one of the Mass Tort attorneys, free of charge, who can help assess any claims that you might have against the DePuy manufacturers.