Lawyers in Talcum Powder Bellwether Lawsuit To Meet for Final Pretrial Conference Nov. 5

The first federal trial involving a woman with ovarian cancer from talcum powder will begin shortly after the conference, to help gauge how juries may respond to evidence and testimony in thousands of lawsuits.

As the start of the first federal talcum powder bellwether trial approaches, plaintiffs and defendants have finalized the lawyers that will participate on their trial teams, and are preparing for a key pretrial conference early next month.

More than 90,000 women with pending Baby Powder lawsuits and Shower-to-Shower lawsuits are closely watching the bellwether case, since each of the claims raise similar allegations that Johnson & Johnson knew their talc-based products could be contaminated with asbestos, yet refused to warn women not to use the powder on their genitals.

The talcum powder litigation began more than a decade ago, and has been consolidated in the federal court system before U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings out of the District of New Jersey.

However, Johnson & Johnson has spent years delaying progress in the federal courts, largely through a series of failed bankruptcy maneuvers aimed at shielding the company from liability. These efforts have stalled the start of any federal trials, even as the size of the litigation continued to grow.

While most of the litigation is centralized in the federal court system, claims are also now moving forward in various state courts including California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In the federal MDL, Judge Shipp has ordered the parties to prepare for the first bellwether trial, which they agreed should be a talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit filed by Carter Judkins. In an August court order (PDF) he scheduled a final pretrial conference for November 5.

On October 1, plaintiffs (PDF) and defendants (PDF) submitted letters indicating which attorneys would represent Judkins and the defendants at trial. However, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys will not be present for the November 5 conference, as he will be serving as lead trial counsel in a talcum powder trial in California state court, which is set to begin the same week.

Hundreds of similar talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits are filed in California state court, which plans to hold the first of three trials starting on November 3. The trial is expected to last about four weeks and will be immediately followed by two similar trials. All three of the California cases will involve two separate plaintiffs.

There are also other trials scheduled for next year in New Jersey and Pennsylvania state courts.

Although the outcomes of these bellwether trials will not be binding on other plaintiffs, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation. If the parties still fail to reach a resolution after the bellwether trials, dozens of individual cases may begin moving forward simultaneously in different courts in the coming years.

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