Paraquat Lawsuits Over Parkinson’s Disease Continue To Be Filed, As MDL Stay Extended

A pause on the federal litigation has been in place since early 2025, but the size and scope of the MDL continues to expand as lawyers work on finalizing details of a global Paraquat settlement for users left with Parkinson’s disease.

As lawyers continue to work with manufacturers toward finalizing the terms of a potential global Paraquat settlement, a steady stream of new lawsuits have been filed by former users diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease following exposure to the controversial weedkiller.

Paraquat has been widely used for decades to control broadleaf weeds and grasses, including in orchards, and is sometimes applied after harvest to dry crops for processing. However, the herbicide has been banned in many countries due to its extreme toxicity.

More than 6,400 individuals are now pursuing Paraquat lawsuits in the federal court system, each raising similar allegations that the manufacturers failed to warn that farmers and agricultural workers may develop Parkinson’s disease, even when the product is used in accordance with safety instructions.

Following several years of litigation, the parties announced that they were nearing a Paraquat Parkinson’s disease lawsuit settlement agreement in April 2025. As a result, the U.S. District Judge presiding over the litigation put a stay in place on all pretrial proceedings, which was set to expire next week.

Days before the litigation was set to resume, the Court agreed extended the pause on all proceedings for at least another two months. However, new claims continue to be brought, with hundreds of lawsuits added to the federal Paraquat MDL while the stay has been in place.

One of the latest claims was brought by Edward Mika, Sr., whose complaint (PDF) was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on December 18, naming Syngenta Crop Protection LLC and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. as defendants.

Mika, who is from Maryland, worked on a farm around Finksburg, Maryland for years where he used a hand-held pressure sprayer to apply Paraquat to tomatoes, corn and soybeans. However, following years of working with the herbicide, he began suffering neurological impairment.

In November 2023, Mika was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The lawsuit argues that the disease was caused by Paraquat attacking his nervous system, although he did not learn about the connection until after the diagnosis.

Mika presents claims of design defect, failure to warn, negligence, breach of warranty of merchantability, and violations of state consumer fraud statutes. He seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.

Paraquat Settlement Terms Still Being Finalized

Given similar questions of fact and law raised in lawsuits over Paraquat filed throughout the federal court system, the litigation has been consolidated as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) since June 2021, with U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengal presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings in the Southern District of Illinois.

Originally, Judge Rosenstengal had scheduled the first of a series of bellwether trials to begin in October 2025, to help test how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the claims. However, the litigation has been paused for the past eight months.

On December 30, the court issued a docket order extending the stay until March 6, 2026. Since the stay was first issued in April 2025, more than 500 additional claims have been filed.

If the parties determine that no Paraquat settlement can be reached, case-specific discovery would continue for the bellwether trials. However, it is unclear what the schedule for those trials would be.

While the outcome of any bellwether trials will not have a 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 if a Paraquat settlement is not finalized.

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