On July 15, 2004, U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim certified a class action lawsuit against St Jude Medical over its defective Silzone heart valves.

Judge Tunheim certified two classes of plaintiffs in litigation against the heart valve manufacturer. One class includes those patients suffering personal injuries following inlantation of the defective Silzone heart valves. The second class includes all other patients implanted with the defective devices to cover medical monitoing for early detection of potential injuries.

St Jude Medical appealed the order to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Eighth Circuit remanded the case to the district cout and required that court to conduct a conflicts-of-law analysis for each plaintiff class member.

Class action lawsuits are utilized when litigating a significant number of claims for damages where common issues apply to a large class of injured persons.

St Jude Medical Silzone heart valves were implanted in approximately 36,000 peopel woldwide. In September 2000, St Jude Medical announced a recall of the devices after clinical trials indicated that the Silzone heart valves are prone to leak.

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Greg Monforton and Partners is working in cooperation with the law firms of Levy Angstreich (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Lerners LLP (Ontario, Canada) to aggressively represent patients injured by a defective St. Jude's Silzone Heart Valve. The three firms have extensive experience handling claims involving dangerous medical devices.

The firms have joined together to combine their skill and experience to effectively represent those affected by defective heart valves designed and manufactured by St. Jude's Medical.