Judge Unseals CerviCore Accusations against Stryker Spine

After the fourteenth CerviCore victim filed a lawsuit on Friday, Judge James D. Bates of the Lucas County (Ohio) Court of Common Pleas ruled that the accusations against CerviCore’s manufacturers cannot be filed under seal and must be made publicly available.

On Friday, Plaintiff Frank Aceste brought suit against Stryker Corporation, Howmedica Osteonics Corporation, and Hammill Manufacturing alleging he was injured by Stryker Spine’s medical device called CerviCore. According to the plaintiff, he participated in Stryker Spine’s clinical trial, but when the product turned out to be dangerous, the company abandoned the 260 people in the trial and many of them grow sicker every year.

On Monday, the Court denied the Motion to File Under Seal, placing the filing in the public domain.

Courts are split on whether cases should be advanced under seal. Some Courts allow corporations to put certain secrets out of reach of the public. Many Courts, however, have taken the position that the public is served by open, unsealed filings and those Courts routinely refuse requests to cloak proceedings in secrecy.

The public may benefit from learning the details of the CerviCore litigation. 259 other people received CerviCore devices and many may be watching the various lawsuits to learn about how harmful the device is. Still others may use the information to learn about the dangers of metal-on-metal devices or the perils of participating in a clinical trial where the manufacturer will not provide medical care when the device later fails.