Red Bank, N.J. – May 10, 2011 – Today the Court appointed Keefe Bartels as co-lead counsel in the DePuy ASR hip implant litigation for the State of New Jersey. The Court’s Order ratified Keefe Bartels’s election to the post by participating lawyers from New Jersey and other parts of the country. Previously, the New Jersey Supreme Court had assigned all pending and future New Jersey state-court hip implant litigation to Bergen County for centralized management by the Honorable Brian R. Martinotti.
DePuy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Brunswick, NJ. DePuy Orthopedics manufactured the ASR Hip Replacement System. Worldwide implants of the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System implants totaled approximately 93,000. The ASR Hip Implant has a troubled domestic and international history. In 2009, due to defects, Johnson & Johnson discontinued these implants. High failure rates necessitated an August 26, 2010 recall.
" We are honored and excited that our firm will remain on the cutting edge of this litigation. Keefe Bartels began investigating claims from patients with ASR Hip Implant replacements over a year before the August 2010 recall. We are eager to aggressively litigate these claims. We are especially pleased to litigate against Johnson & Johnson in its home state of New Jersey. New Jersey’s strong and independent judiciary provides an experienced and fair forum for the efficient litigation and trial of these cases."
Joshua S. Kincannon leads the medical device litigation team at Keefe Bartels. He explains:
"This case is about information, both for plaintiffs and defendants. For Defendants, a crucial question is ‘What did they know and when did they know it?’ We look forward to working with New Jersey lawyers as well as plaintiffs’ counsel from across the country in answering that and other questions as we help victims and their families who have been injured by one of these devices."
