On October 3, Circuit Court Judge Marina Garcia-Wood entered an order which granted lawsuits involving Stryker’s Rejuvenate Total His System to be consolidated into one case, solely for discovery purposes.
The Broward County, Florida-based Judge found that “1) there are a number of cases currently pending in this Circuit relating to a product commonly referred to as a Rejuvenate Total Hip System; 2) it is anticipated that additional cases relating to this product will be filed; and 3) consolidation for discovery pursuant to Rule 1.270(a) and Administrative Order 2011-32-Civ is appropriate.”
Discovery is basically the preliminary parts of the trial, where each party serves a specified number of questions which ask the opposing side to either admit, deny, or object to the questions, or to produce certain documents which will help the parties prepare for trial.
The reason these cases have been consolidated is because the defendant is the same party in all of these lawsuits (Stryker). Therefore, although every plaintiff will be different, they will all most likely request the same documents and ask the same questions. Consolidation allows for the defendant to answer these questions once, without wasting time, money, and court resources.
This consolidation action stemmed from a request by the parties, and the order applies to 13 listed cases, as well as any additional actions which the parties agree, or the court decides, is appropriate for consolidation.
Administrative Order 2011-32-Civ is an order of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County which sets the ground rules for the distribution of civil cases.
We will continue to keep you up to date with news of this lawsuit. For more information, contact a Gacovino Lake attorney at 1-800-246-HURT (4878).
