10 Hair Relaxer Lawsuits Selected by Court for Early Trial Dates

Hair relaxer MDL judge has altered the bellwether selection process, disqualifying several types of claims proposed by the parties, which she says are not representative of the larger litigation.

The U.S. District Judge overseeing all federal hair relaxer lawsuits being pursued by former users of products like Just for Me, Optimum and Dark & Lovely has selected 10 cancer cases that will be prepared for early trials, narrowing the pool from what was originally planned.

The cases will be used as “bellwethers” to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout more than 11,000 product liability lawsuits currently being pursued by women who developed uterine cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer and other injuries linked to chemicals in the popular hair straighteners.

The litigation emerged almost immediately after a study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in October 2022, which found that women who use hair relaxers more than four times per year face a 156% increased risk of developing uterine cancer. Even infrequent use of between one and four times per year was found to increase the risk of uterine cancer by 54%.

Lawsuits now allege that cosmetics companies like L’Oreal, Revlon, Strength of Nature and others knew or should have known about these risks, yet failed to warn users that chemical hair straighteners may significantly increase the risk of reproductive cancers.

The complaints note that these products were heavily marketed toward women of color, pressuring them to conform to societal hair beauty standards. However, the lawsuits claim this led to disproportionate exposure to harmful chemicals, including phthalates, parabens and formaldehyde-releasing chemicals, which have been associated with hormone disruption and the development of tumors in reproductive tissues.

Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Bellwether Trials

In 2023, all federal complaints were consolidated into a hair relaxer lawsuit multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of Illinois, where U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland was appointed to preside over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Over the past three years, Judge Rowland has been overseeing the preparation of 32 hair relaxer lawsuits for potential bellwether trials. These early test cases are intended to help the court and parties evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their claims, potentially facilitating settlement negotiations to resolve the filings.

Last month, each side identified 12 potential bellwether selections from that pool of 32 claims, which the parties indicated they believe would serve as representative trial cases. However, an April 2 docket entry (PDF) indicates that Judge Rowland rejected several of these because she did not believe they were representative of the larger body of litigation.

Judge Rowland selected 10 cases to move forward as bellwether trials, reducing the overall pool and outlining criteria for excluding certain claims, particularly if replacements are needed.

She indicated the following types of cases should not be included:

• Claims involving only one or two defendants
• Plaintiffs with memory loss, mental health conditions or learning disabilities
• Plaintiffs also pursuing talcum powder cancer lawsuits involving similar reproductive cancer claims

Using these standards, the judge selected lawsuits filed by Bridget Boatwright, Carrie Chattman, Charlene Fennell, Gloria Ford, Areecia Jackson, Joanne Jones, Rosa Robinson, Karla Smith, Roxanna Wade and Janette Wallace.

For example, Boatwright, a New York resident, developed uterine and endometrial cancer after years of using hair relaxer products from L’Oréal, Revlon and Namaste Laboratories. Chattman, also from New York, was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2017 after long-term use of products such as Dark & Lovely, Optimum, ORS Olive Oil and Crème of Nature.

Originally, Judge Rowland was scheduled to nominate only three claims eligible to serve as bellwether trials by April 1, after which plaintiffs were expected to select one of the cases for trial by April 6, with defendants choosing another claim by April 10. That process was to be repeated throughout the month of April. However, with the revised orders, it is unclear how the bellwether schedule has changed.

While the results of these bellwether trials will not be binding on other cases, they are expected to give the parties and the court an idea of how juries will weigh evidence, testimony and legal theories that would be a prominent factor throughout the rest of the litigation. It is hoped that the results of these trials could help pave the way for hair relaxer cancer lawsuit settlement negotiations.

However, if the bellwether trials and pretrial proceedings end without a settlement or other resolution, the lawsuits may be remanded back to their originating federal district courts for individual trial dates.

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