Personal Injury Legal News Articles & Interviews

Santa Clara, CA: A former member of the U.S. Navy SEABEES adds one more lawsuit to hundreds of others filed by veterans nationwide against 3M Corporation, claiming that the company falsified testing documents and knowingly manufactured and distributed 3M combat arms defective earplugs to the U.S. Military.

Atlanta, GA Judge Richard W. Story has now identified ten bellwether Ethicon Physiomesh lawsuits that will likely shape the multidistrict litigation pending in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia. Trials in these hernia mesh lawsuits are now scheduled to begin in April 2020. But there will be plenty to watch even before opening statements begin.

Denton, MT: A Montana farmer recently filed a Monsanto glyphosate lawsuit claiming its herbicide Roundup he used since 1982 caused his Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In a similar case filed in France, a French court found Monsanto guilty of poisoning a farmer and in June the first Australian legal action was filed against Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018.

New Brunswick, NJ: Johnson & Johnson presented scientific literature during the latest asbestos talc trial on August 9 indicating a “weak link” between peritoneal mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, challenging testimony of pathologist John Maddox and the four plaintiffs who have been diagnosed with this form of cancer. All four were exposed to asbestos in J&J baby powder when they were babies, which allegedly caused their terminal cancer. Babies are even more susceptible to the risks of asbestos exposure because their cells are still developing and because they breathe faster, increasing the amount of asbestos they might breathe in, plaintiff’s attorney Moshe Maimon told the jury.

Trenton, NJ: Johnson & Johnson is hoping to snuff out over 20 plaintiffs’ expert witnesses from the multi-district litigation in a Daubert Hearing that began this week. The plaintiff cases are built on expert testimonies who say that asbestos fibers have been found in samples of talcum powder provided by plaintiff lawyers purchased on eBay and other places.

New York, NY: A Johnson & Johnson shareholder in February 2018 filed a securities class action claiming that J&J has known its talcum powder contains asbestos fibers and that exposure to J&J’s talc can cause mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. Shareholders are now urging a federal judge to move forward with the lawsuit because they purportedly have evidence showing that the company has known since the 1970s about the dangers of its talc and chose testing methods that couldn’t detect the cancer-causing asbestos fibers.

Washington, DC A disturbing theme has emerged from the trio of recent Monsanto glyphosate lawsuits. In each of them, Johnson v. Monsanto Co., Hardeman v. Monsanto Co. and Pilliod v. Monsanto Co., the plaintiffs’ cancers were linked to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup. And in each of them, the company’s liability was founded on the proposition that it failed to warn users even though it knew or should have known about the danger.

Alameda, CA: Patricia Schmitz, age 61, a mother of two with grandchildren and former school teacher, was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year and her doctors say she has little chance to survive. Her asbestos talc case states that J&J products caused the disease; J&J’s attorneys and expert witness argued her cancer was “spontaneous in nature”. The jury awarded Schmitz $12 million in damages.

San Diego, CA A new study, conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, suggests an association between glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in human beings.

Philadelphia, PA On May 17, a jury returned an $80 million verdict for Patricia and George Mesigian in their surgical mesh lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon. The award included $50 million in punitive damages and a record-setting $30 million in compensatory damages.