Paraquat Parkinson’s Disease Settlement Terms Still Being Finalized

No details have been released yet about the average Paraquat settlement payouts that may be provided to individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after exposure to the controversial herbicide.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Paraquat Parkinson’s disease lawsuits has agreed to extend a pause on all case-specific discovery deadlines until at least July 21, 2025, to provide lawyers involved in the litigation additional time to finalize the terms of a potential settlement agreement that is expected to resolve all claims pending in the federal court system.

Chevron and Syngenta currently face more than 6,000 product liability lawsuits, each raising similar allegations that the companies failed to disclose the link between Paraquat and Parkinson’s disease, including the risk that mixing, spraying or handling the weedkiller may lead to the development of the progressive nervous system disorder, which affects movement and has no known cure.

As lawyers were finalizing preparations for a series of early bellwether trials expected to go before juries later this year, the Court was notified that a tentative Paraquat settlement agreement had been reached to resolve most of the claims in April 2025. However, two months later the parties still have not finalized terms of the Parkinson’s disease settlement or disclosed information about the average payouts individual claimants may receive to settle their claim.

Given common questions of fact and law, the claims have been consolidated as part of a Paraquat MDL (multidistrict litigation) for the past four years, with lawsuits brought in U.S. District Courts nationwide centralized in the Southern District of Illinois before Judge Nancy Rosenstengal, who has been presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Since the claims were first consolidated in June 2021, Judge Rosenstengal has set the litigation on a course toward early “bellwether” test trials designed to gauge how juries are likely to respond to evidence and testimony that would apply to thousands of potential claims. However, in April 2024 she dismissed the first batch of Paraquat bellwether lawsuit candidates after excluding key expert witnesses presented by plaintiffs in those cases.

Judge Rosenstengal then 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.

On April 14, lawyers filed a joint motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which is considering a challenge of the decision to dismiss the first group of bellwethers, indicating that the appeals process should be put on hold due to a potential settlement agreement, which was expected to resolve all claims brought in the federal court system.

Several week slater, Judge Rosenstengal agreed to stay case-specific discovery in the new crop of bellwether cases, and called for a Paraquat settlement update to be provided by no later than June 11. However, in a docket-only order issued on June 20, the judge announced that she would extend the stay of case-specific discovery deadlines until July 21, to give the parties more time to focus on finalizing the terms of the settlement agreement.

If no settlement is finalized, case-specific discovery may resume late next month. However, it is unclear whether the trials will proceed as scheduled on October 14, 2025 and 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.

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