Susan Barfield (00:06):
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tort Talk Thursday here with Joe Fantini of Rosen Injury Lawyers. Joe, as always, uh, grateful for you to be taking time outta your day to share the latest and greatest on all things mass tort.
Joe Fantini (00:18):
Thanks for having me, Susan. I always love getting together with you and talking all the latest developments in the mass tort world.
Susan Barfield (00:24):
Yeah, and before we dive in, I know we’re gonna hit the highlights on a few litigation updates. Before we do that, I just wanted to give a big shout out and thank you to Broughton Partners and the team Cason and his team there. For those of you who have not had the opportunity and the pleasure of working with Kason and his team, they are Broughton Partners, is a law firm advertising and case acquisition solution. What I appreciate, I’ve, I’ve had the opportunity to have worked with Broughton Partners for many, many years. What I appreciate is that they are a true partner. Um, one thing that comes to mind is that in working with leads, it’s really important, the quality of the data upfront really helps the case development and the flow of data and Case and his team are always willing to partner, hop on calls, get, you know, leads re-engaged and transferred over to casework. So anyway, thank you so much, uh, Kason and brought partners for sponsoring today’s Tort Talk Thursday episode. Umm, Joe, why don’t we dive right in. One of the first things that I’m really interested to hear from you is about the latest NEC defense verdict. Just wanna get your thoughts, um, and kind of what comes next.
Joe Fantini (01:25):
Yeah, so unfortunately we had the first defense verdict here in the NEC litigation. Previously. We talked about two huge plaintiff wins, 495 million and 60 million. What this case showed us is each case is different, right? The facts of each individual case is really gonna shape how this litigation goes forward. We have ’em nailed pretty well on the general causation, but it’s gonna be the specific causation of each case that’s gonna determine the verdict. So in these cases, we saw the defendants meet in Abbott. They were fighting for their lives, they were pulling out all the stops. We even had an attorney for the defendants from Kirkland get sanctioned and prevented from making a closing argument. It was a crazy trial to say the least. And unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of that. It was challenging facts and having two defendants there with two products. Also, another hurdle likely, fortunately for us, there’s thousands of cases out there that are still pending. And in the MDL, we recently got the bellwether trial order. So we have three cases teed up for trial in 2025, another one in 2026. The first MDL trial’s gonna kick off in May, and while that’s ongoing, we’re hitting them with state court actions across the country. Another half dozen trials are scheduled, so we didn’t win this one. We’re gonna learn from it and hopefully come back with some more good verdicts for our very deserving clients.
Susan Barfield (02:41):
Yeah, and May is right around the corner, so lots to get done. Let’s talk a little bit about the opioid bankruptcy. I know there’s rumors in that there’s potential agreements. What have you heard on this bankruptcy?
Joe Fantini (02:51):
Yeah, so this is a big case as you know, Susan, the Purdue Opioid bankruptcy, it went all the way up to the Supreme Court and we got a really positive ruling in our favors. Basically, the owners, the founders, the slackers, they weren’t able to use the bankruptcy to discharge all of these cases and get this third party release. And so the Supreme Court denied the bankruptcy plan and we went back to the drawing board recently we heard that settlement discussions are ongoing. There’s gonna be a big increase, hopefully in the settlement award. The slackers individually are gonna contribute and we heard that before December 2nd, there’s likely to be another settlement. So that’s a really good development, not just for those involved with the opioids, but other cases where these defendants try to do these sham bankruptcies.
Susan Barfield (03:37):
That that was definitely positive update. And the next litigation that I wanna get your thoughts on is AFFF and I understood that the case count went down. So there again would’ve you heard or kind of next steps?
Joe Fantini (03:48):
Yeah, so AFFF, the MDL was a little bit unique and that we had the personal injury cases and then we also had the water facilities involved in the same MDL. There was a decrease last month of about 25, 2700 cases, which brings us to about 7,200 cases. We talked recently about that updated plaintiff profile form. So those cases are moving forward and everybody’s really getting a hard look. Plaintiffs served our expert reports, we’re gonna get ’em from the defendant soon. And then first quarter, we’ll we’ll get teed up for the Dalbert arguments. So it looks like this case should be settling likely by this time next year. So we’ll keep you guys updated as we move forward.
Susan Barfield (04:27):
Fantastic. Joe, as always, thank you so much for taking time to share the latest and greatest news as it relates to Mass Torts.
Joe Fantini (04:36):
Thanks for having me, Susan.
