Products-liability class action lawsuits are heating up in a variety of areas for large groups of people with similar injuries across the country. Trial attorneys are soliciting plaintiffs with claims arising from injuries related to TVM surgery, ASR hip replacement surgery, Actos use and bladder cancer, Lipitor and Crestor use and the development of diabetes, and exposure to asbestos leading to mesothelioma. Many women who received trans-vaginal mesh surgery (TVM) had to have multiple surgeries to remove the mesh and to correct health issues caused by the original surgery itself. The Multi-District Litigation will be heard in Federal court in West Virginia, once all of the claims have been collected.
Many plaintiffs across the United States have also filed class-action lawsuits for defective hip replacement parts, many of which were made by DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of Johnson & Johnson, in litigation sometimes called “ASR litigation.” The lawsuits allege that DePuy’s ASR hip replacement devices were defective, causing medical complications, and often, revision surgery, and that DePuy knew of the defects. Other hip replacement surgery lawsuits have been filed against Stryker and DePuy for other similar replacement devices.
Plaintiffs have also alleged in class-action claims that the diabetes drug pioglitazone, marketed under the name Actos,caused bladder cancer and potentially prostate cancer, and that Actos’s manufacturer should have warned the public about the risk. Similarly, many people have filed suit again the manufacturer of Lipitor, a drug designed to treat high cholesterol, believing that it caused them to develop diabetes, liver damage, memory problems, and rhabdomylysis. Trial attorneys are currently evaluating cases to determine whether Crestor, another cholesterol-treatment drug, caused patients to develop Type 2 diabetes. Finally, the injuries and claims related to asbestos and mesothelioma continue to grow, despite the fact that the first lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers were filed in the 1920’s.
LawCash has provided this thumb-nail sketch of class-action “hot-spots” to give an overview of trends in products-liability class-action lawsuits, and will next feature in-depth analysis of the issues related to each of these products-liability multi-plaintiff actions.
