MDL Judge Orders Paraquat Lawsuit Settlement Update By June 11, 2025

Following an announcement that lawyers are close to reaching a Paraquat settlement for Parkinson’s disease lawsuits, Court agreed to stay all deadlines for 30 days.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Paraquat lawsuits has agreed to stay all discovery deadlines in the litigation for 30 days, as lawyers work to finalize terms of a massive Parkinson’s disease settlement, which may resolve thousands of individual claims brought by former users of the controversial weedkiller.

There are currently more than 6,000 Paraquat Parkinson’s disease lawsuits pending in the federal court system, each raising similar allegations that Syngenta and Chevron failed to adequately inform users about serious health risks associated with Paraquat exposure, including when mixing, spraying or handling the herbicide.

While the Court is actively preparing a small group of bellwether claims for early trial dates previously expected to begin later this year, parties involved in the litigation recently announced that a tentative Paraquat settlement has been reached to resolve claims. However, specific terms of the deal have not been finalized, and individual plaintiffs have not yet received information about how much they may receive to settle their claim.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in claims brought throughout the federal court system, all Paraquat lawsuits have been centralized as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Southern District of Illinois since June 2021, where U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel has been presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

In April 2024, Judge Rosenstengal dismissed the first batch of potential Paraquat bellwether lawsuits, after excluding key expert witness testimony presented by plaintiffs in that case. However, that ruling remains on appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. 

While that appeal was being pursued, Judge Rosenstengal selected 10 new Paraquat bellwether candidates late last year, which involve different expert testimony and are currently being prepared for a series of trial dates set to begin in October 2025 and April 2026.

Paraquat Settlement Agreement Pending

On April 14, the parties filed a joint motion with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the appellate process be put on hold, as the parties were close to reaching a Paraquat lawsuit settlement agreement. In response, Judge Rosenstengal issued an order (PDF) on May 9, staying case-specific discovery deadlines for 30 days. However, the order calls on the parties to update the court on the status of the final Paraquat settlement agreement no later than June 11, 2025.

If no settlement materializes, case-specific discovery would continue with the second batch of potential bellwether claims, but it is unclear whether the previously scheduled trial dates may be delayed. 

Last month, the Court identified three of the bellwether lawsuits that are candidates for the first scheduled trial, which is currently set to begin on October 14, 2025, with a second bellwether trial previously scheduled to start on April 6, 2026.

While the outcome of these trials will not have any binding impact on other plaintiffs, they will be closely watched to help gauge how juries are likely to respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation if a Paraquat settlement is not finalized.