Hair Relaxer Lawsuits MDL Judge Seeks Status Report on Discovery Proceedings

A contentious discovery process has emerged, as lawyers prepare a group of 32 hair relaxer lawsuits for a series of early bellwether trial dates in the federal MDL.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal hair relaxer lawsuits brought by women diagnosed with uterine cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer has ordered lawyers involved in the claims to update the Court this week on their progress preparing the first claims for early bellwether test trials.

L’Oreal, Revlon and other leading cosmetic companies currently face more than 12,000 product liability lawsuits, each raising similar allegations that women were not adequately warned about the long-term side effects from endocrine disrupting chemicals in Dark & Lovely, Just for Me, Optimum, ORS Olive Oil and other popular hair relaxers, which have been marketed to African American women for decades as a safe and effective way to straighten their hair.

The lawsuits first began to be filed after the release of an October 2022 study, which confirmed a link between hair relaxers and cancer. Researchers found that women who regularly use chemical straighteners face a 156% increased risk of uterine cancer when compared to their peers. Further studies have since linked hair relaxers to increased risks of ovarian cancer and other reproductive malignancies.

Since early 2023, the lawsuits have been centralized before U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland in the Northern District of Illinois, as part of a hair relaxer MDL (multidistrict litigation), where the Court is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Early in the litigation, Judge Rowland announced plans to hold a series of bellwether trials to help the parties evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their positions, gauge how juries will likely respond to evidence and testimony that would be repeated throughout the litigation, and potentially lead to hair relaxer settlement negotiations, which could help to avoid thousands of individual cases being set for trial.

On May 9, plaintiffs and manufacturers identified 32 hair relaxer lawsuits that will serve as the bellwether discovery pool, with each of the claims involving women diagnosed with either uterine cancer, ovarian cancer or endometrial cancer following regular use of chemical straighteners.

Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Discovery Update Ordered

With fact discovery set to be completed by February 2026 and general causation discovery due by March 2026, Judge Rowland issued a court order (PDF) on May 14, calling on the parties to submit a Joint Status Report tomorrow that updates the court on the current state of discovery proceedings, including the scheduling of depositions and other discovery topics raised at the last status conference in April that need to be addressed.

The order addresses issues involving each major defendant, mostly focused on the process of producing and exchanging key documents both sides need to access to build their cases. For example, plaintiffs and defendants are currently disputing document requests involving L’Oreal, which faces the largest number of claims.

“Plaintiffs contend that L’Oreal offered a deficient response to Plaintiff’s request(s) for production seeking foreign regulatory materials submitted to all non-United States regulatory bodies (including African regulatory bodies), not just documents and files submitted to European regulatory bodies,” the order notes. “L’Oreal reported that it had a different understanding of Plaintiffs’ position, and the parties agreed to meet and confer. The parties are to report on the progress of these efforts in the May 22, 2025 JSR (joint status report), if there is still a dispute.”

However, overall, Judge Rowland appears to anticipate that most of the discovery process is running smoothly, according to previous reports.

On May 19, Judge Rowland issued a docket entry order (PDF) calling for the status report to also include a list of depositions already taken, those that have been scheduled for the future, and those that have not yet been scheduled.

Following the completion of bellwether fact discovery, the Court will select three cases that will be eligible for trial by February 23, 2026. However, given the pretrial schedule, it is unlikely that the first bellwether trial will begin until at least the middle of 2027.

While the outcome of these early trials will not be binding on other women presenting a claim, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation, and may have a substantial impact on the timing and average amounts of any hair relaxer settlements offered to women diagnosed with uterine cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer by the manufacturers.

However, if the hair relaxer bellwether trials do not result in any global resolution for the claims, it is likely that Judge Rowland will begin remanding each claim back to various U.S. District Courts for individual trials in the coming years.