Defective Medical Product Claims

Medical negligence and product liability claims are overseen by our head litigation lawyer, John McCarthy. John has acted in a wide variety of personal injury, wrongful death, medical negligence and defective medical product cases at Circuit Court, High Court and Supreme Court level.

In the past, John has acted for dozens of victims who have been fitted with defective devices to treat medical conditions. In the early to mid-2010s, he brought multiple successful claims against DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc following the worldwide recall of their ASR XL acetabular total hip replacement system. More recently, John has been assisting litigants who have been fitted with defective DePuy Attune Knee Systems.

Medical product liability is governed by a separate piece of European legislation implemented in Ireland under the Liability for Defective Products Act, 1991.

One of the big considerations in the context of defective product claims, as opposed to claims in negligence, is that there is a three-year limitation period rather than two years in the case of most other claims.

Defective product claims are made in what is referred to as a strict liability regime, which means that if you can show that the injury was caused by the product, you don’t have to show negligence or provide proof of the nature of the defect, the liability follows automatically.

While there is a three year liability period, there is a ten-year backstop, where if the product has been in circulation on the market for 10 years or more, then no liability attaches. In those circumstances, the question arises as to what “in circulation” actually means. You could have a situation where you have a medical device that was developed 20 years ago and if you were to rely on that date as the one that was first released on the market, then you’d be precluded from relying on the Liability for Defective Products Act. However, the better view appears to be that it’s the actual date when the individual product in question was first acquired on the market, i.e. sold to a consumer or put into use as part of a service or procedure.

Product liability is beneficial in so far as (a) its strict regulatory regime and (b), you’ve got a longer limitation period.

If you, or a member of your family, have suffered as a result of a defective medical device, contact our specialist solicitors today for further advice on how to go about instigating your claim.

Some links relating to this topic that you may find useful.

• HPRA – Quality Defects and Recalls
• National Library of Medicine – Drug and medical device product failures and the stability of the pharmaceutical supply chain
• Medical Device Network – The world’s biggest medical device recalls

• DePuy Attune Knee System
• Zimmer NexGen Knee Replacement

If you are currently experiencing issues with a medical device that you have had fitted, get in touch with our specialist defective productive claims solicitors to gather more information about starting a claim. Call us on 1800 390 555 and an experienced member of staff will discuss your situation and potential next steps. You can also email on info@mccarthy.ie and we will get back to you as soon as we can.