Judge Schedules First Federal Bellwether Exactech Knee Implant Trial for September 2025

The U.S. District Judge presiding over the federal litigation involving failed Exactech knee, hip and ankle implants, has rescheduled the start of the first bellwether trials, setting Exactech Optetrak knee implant lawsuits to go before juries in late September 2025 and early November 2025.

The litigation stems from an Exactech recall announced in February 2022, after it was discovered that “out-of-specification” vacuum sealed bags were used to store certain plastic tibial inserts in joint replacement systems distributed since at least 2004.

The manufacturing problem allegedly allowed oxygen to reach the components well before they were placed into patients’ bodies, which caused the implants to degrade and fail prematurely, often resulting in the need for additional surgery to remove the failed component only a few years after it was implanted.

The original recall impacted more than 140,000 Optetrak, Optetrak Logic and Truliant knee replacement systems, as well as 15,000 components used in Exactech Vantage ankle replacements.

Similar problems also led to a recall of Exactech Novation and Acumatch hip implants in June 2021, and the Exactech hip recall was expanded in August 2022, after the manufacturer identified another 40,000 artificial joints that could fail prematurely. Another Exactech recall involving knee implant components was announced in April 2024.

There are currently more than 2,500 Exactech lawsuits filed in both federal and state courts against the manufacturer, with about 1,800 of the claims pending in a centralized multidistrict litigation (MLD) before U.S. District Judge Nicolas G. Garaufis in the Eastern District of New York.

To help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the claims, Judge Garaufis previously established a plan to hold a series of early Exactech “bellwether” trials in the MDL.

The parties have selected a small group of representative claims to prepare for those early bellwether trials, which were previously expected to begin between July 2025 and January 2026.

However, in a docket entry issued on October 18, Judge Garautis announced that the first bellwether trial will now begin on September 29, 2025, involving claims filed by Gayle Tarloff (PDF) of New York, who indicates her Optetrak Logic knee implant failed and had to be surgically removed.

The Court set the second trial to begin on November 10, 2025, involving claims filed by Geraldine Larson (PDF), also of New York, who suffered a similar failure of an Optetrak Logic knee in 2022.

The parties have requested a delay in scheduling the third and fourth trial dates, which Judge Garaufis has agreed to, indicating that the parties can submit a proposed schedule for pretrial procedures in those claims in January 2025, after planned consultations with Magistrate Judge Marcia Henry over several outstanding discovery issues.

While the first federal lawsuit will not go before a jury until September 2025, the first actual Exactech hip implant lawsuit is currently expected to go before a state court jury in Florida in December 2024. A pretrial hearing for that trial is set for November 21, 2024.

Although the outcomes of these early trials will have no binding impact on other lawsuits in the litigation, they will be closely watched and may have an influence on any Exactech recall settlements the manufacturer offers to avoid the need for hundreds of individual trials to be scheduled in the coming years.