April 19, 2015 - Attention Residents of Minneapolis-St. Paul and other locales in Minnesota with Stryker Hip Implants! Stryker Corporation has recently reached an agreement to settle lawsuits over its Rejuvenate and ABGII metal hip implants. If you were implanted with a Stryker Rejuvenate or Stryker ABGII metal hip implant, you may be entitled to monetary compensation under this Stryker Hip Settlement Agreement...
The Status of Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII Hip Lawsuits
Following the July, 2012 Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip recalls, lawsuits began being filed against the manufacturer of the two defective hip implants. Most of the current 2,300 lawsuits are filed under Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip multidistrict litigation which is a procedure normally adopted in cases of the same nature. In these MDL cases, the individual plaintiffs file their complaints of a similar nature against a single defendant. In an effort to avoid repetitive work and reduce the burden on the court system, the cases are combined in one court, and a group of these cases are put to pretrial.
During pretrial, the case is heard by the judge prior to the actual trial as a means of allowing plaintiffs and defendant the opportunity to reach a settlement as well as concluding how the case will do at trial. Currently seventeen out of eighteen cases chosen for mediation have been settled, however the details of those settlements are not available to the public. Other cases are currently in the mediation process, while still others are being chosen as bellwether trial cases. While it is expected that many of the cases will be settled outside court, there is no bar on individual trials—in other words, the plaintiff has the choice of agreeing to a settlement or going to trial following the bellwether decisions.
Understanding Upcoming Bellwether Stryker Trials
After the courts finalize all pretrial matters, bellwether cases will be chosen; a bellwether case is meant to forecast the probable outcome of similar cases. This approach saves the courts—and the plaintiffs—valuable time, allowing the cases to come to trial or reach a settlement much more quickly. On March 12, 2014, Plaintiffs’ Lead Counsel Committee and the Defense Counsel met with the Court in order to prepare a schedule for three to five bellwether cases which will be heard in the summer of 2015. The bellwether cases will involve a representative sampling of plaintiffs from the MDLs in New Jersey or Minnesota. The “groups” for the bellwether trials could include a person who received an ABGII or Rejuvenate and suffered pain but no surgical intervention, a person with high cobalt and chromium levels in their bloodstream, a person who suffered complications and required Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip revision surgery, those with ABGII implants and those with Rejuvenate implants.
How the Minnesota Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII Hip Statute of Limitations May Affect You
The state of Minnesota has a slightly longer Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII statute of limitations than many other states, as action must be brought within four years of the date your injury occurs. Because of this longer Minnesota Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip statute of limitations, you may feel no particular urgency in pursuing a Minnesota Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip lawsuit. The statute of limitations can be complex and difficult to apply to your own Minnesota case without benefit of a Minnesota Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip lawyer. The following locales in the state of Minnesota are encouraged to speak to a knowledgeable Minnesota Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip lawyer at the earliest possible time:
· Minneapolis, Minnesota
· Saint Paul, Minnesota
· Rochester, Minnesota
· Duluth, Minnesota
· Bloomington, Minnesota
· Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
· Plymouth, Minnesota
· Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Whether you suffered injury fairly soon after receiving your Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip implant, or have not yet suffered any overt signs of injury relating to your Stryker implant, it is important that you contact an experienced Minnesota Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip lawyer in order to determine the best way to proceed. You may be entitled to past medical expenses, ongoing medical expenses, lost wages, future lost earnings and pain and suffering. Don’t miss your window of opportunity—call a Stryker attorney today.