A meeting was held on January 26, 2011 by Judge David A. Katz of the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo to initiate the assigning of various leadership positions for the DePuy lawsuits Multidistrict Litigation (MDL). Several lawyers have applied for the said position and Judge Katz have already given the leadership roles to them. It was the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation that appointed Judge Katz to supervise the pretrial proceedings.

Positions that were given leadership roles to were: Plaintiffs' Executive Committee, Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, Science Committee, Discovery Committee, and Law and Motions Committee. Plaintiffs' Liaison Counsel and Plaintiffs' State Liaison Counsel are two other committees that needed chairpersons but the Executive Committee will assign chairs for these. Other positions might open as soon as Judge Katz thinks it might be needed.

Some might think that an MDL is just the same as class action suits. Although they have resemblances, an MDL is aimed towards making pretrial proceedings more efficient by giving equal access to information to all parties involved. Individual lawsuits remain unique. In class action lawsuits, compensation would be equally distributed among the recipients even though the degree of harm vary significantly. In an MDL, each case maintained which gives plaintiffs the opportunity to receive the compensation that they deserve.

Hundreds of DePuy cases were already filed and experts think that the lawsuits could even reach thousands. It is important that you speak with a capable and competent hip replacement attorney who would help you through your legal battle with a corporate giant. For further information, visit the DePuy hip recall website.