Susan (0:06):
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tort Talk Thursday. Here with Joe Fantini of Rosen Injury Lawyers. Joe, it’s great to see you and grateful for you to spend a little bit of time with me today talking about some of these litigations and providing some updates.
Joe (0:21):
Thanks for having me, Susan. Always love getting together, talking the latest developments in the world of mass torts.
Susan (0:26):
Yeah, and speaking of latest development, what is on the horizon for J&J?
Joe (0:32):
So we just wrapped up here the third J &J bankruptcy trial. This was before Judge Lopez. This is where J&J was trying to utilize the Texas two-step. They got in a venue that they liked. They said this was a prepackaged bankruptcy with about 80% of the potential claimants opting into it. There was a two-week trial that just completed before Judge Lopez. J&J is arguing that the plaintiffs are going to get about $120,000 a case. There’s overwhelming support for it, and it should go forward. Those opposing it are arguing that the bankruptcy court isn’t the proper procedure for it to proceed in because J&J is under no financial distress. They also had questions about this pre-package process, saying some of the statements were misleading. We’re expecting a ruling here in the coming weeks. I expect that to be appealed up to higher court, ultimately probably get to the Supreme Court, but hopefully we get a good ruling here and some of these cases can get resolved in 2025. It’s been 15 years already.
Susan (1:32):
Yeah, that would be fantastic. What is going on with Depo-Provera? I hear more and more firms are working on these cases, so what’s the latest there?
Joe (1:40):
Depo-Provera, the most exciting tort so far of 2025. The cases got sent to Judge Rogers, our judge from the 3M earplug litigation. She’s very experienced and she’s wasted no time entering a number of case management orders. It looks like we’re gonna have a rocket docket here and Judge Rogers is doing something unique. She wants to move forward with five initial tests, almost mini bellwether cases, to identify the key issues in the first 180 days. So hopefully these cases can move at a really rapid pace, and it doesn’t drag on like some of the others we’ve seen, like we were just talking about with J&J.
Susan (2:16):
Speaking of dragging on and litigations that have been going on for many years would be Bair Hugger. Tell us what is the latest and the insights you’re hearing about that litigation.
Joe (2:25):
Bair Hugger litigation, another 10-year-old mass tort. We’re actually making some really good progress here. About 8,000 cases pending in the MDL. Some of the cases were actually remanded to different courts throughout the country to start getting those bellwether cases going. Plaintiffs scored almost a slam dunk victory in one case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. We got our expert in on specific and general causation. That trial is supposed to kick off in April. We have another half-dozen trials scheduled in 2025. So I’m being optimistic here, but I think we’ll have a resolution of this litigation hopefully before the end of the year.
Susan (3:02):
Oh, that would be awesome. OK, another litigation it’s not been going on for 10 years, but hair relaxer, what is, what are you hearing about hair relaxer?
Joe (3:09):
Hair relaxer, we’re hearing good things. We have almost 10,000 cases pending in the MDL focusing on the three main type of cancers. We got some good development recently where the parties agreed to go to a mediator to start discussing settlement. The picks for the mediators are due before the end of March here, and then after that, we’ll get in front of the mediator while the cases get worked up. First bellwether trial should be underway in under a year. Another one where maybe we could get a settlement before the end of 2025, so a lot of positive feelings coming out of that mass tort.
Susan (3:43):
Fantastic. Well, good. Well, Joe, as always, really appreciate you taking time to connect and share these industry insights with us.
Joe (3:51):
Thanks for having me, Susan.
Susan (3:53):
If you would like to hear the industry’s latest news and updates, please make sure to subscribe to the Caseworks channel. Simply click the button below and make sure you have on notifications so that you are the first to hear of the latest updates and insights.
