Susan Barfield (00:07):
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tort Talk Thursday. I’m here with Joe Fantini of Rosen Injury Lawyers. Joe, thanks so much for spending some time with us talking all things mass tort.
Joe Fantini (00:18):
Thanks for having me, Susan. Always love getting together with you every week to talk about the latest developments in Mass Torts.
Susan Barfield (00:23):
Okay. Speaking of latest developments, if you would give us a little update on this third NEC trial.
Joe Fantini (00:31):
Yeah, big news going on right now in Missouri State Court. The third NEC trial kicked off this week. As you know, we had two very large plaintiff verdicts in the first two cases, $60 million and then $495 million. So a lot of interest going on here. Trials should last anywhere from six weeks to eight weeks. While that’s going on, we also got some good news in the MDL. Looks like some bellwether trials are going to get underway in Q2 in the MDL, so a lot of pressure on the defendants and a lot of attention helping these children that have really been hurt.
Susan Barfield (01:06):
That’s great. Okay. Let’s talk a little bit about the social media MDL and the recent order.
Joe Fantini (01:11):
Yeah, so social media, MDL, we had a good ruling on the [section] 230 immunity argument. It looks like the defendants are appealing that up to the third circuit seeking nc. So further review of that. While that’s going on, we got some guidance from the court now about what’s going to happen over the next year or so related to discovery, identifying bellwether cases that will likely be in the summer of 2025, getting expert discovery completed, and then it looks like we’re about a year and a half away from social media first trial in Q1 2026. A lot to go on between now and then, but this is a mass tort that’s really going to explode in 2025. We’ll be talking a lot about it.
Susan Barfield (01:54):
And then lastly, I know there’s a lot going on in Delaware as it relates to Zantac, so what are you hearing as the latest on that litigation?
Joe Fantini (02:03):
Right. In Delaware State Court, this is where the Zantac litigation is really focused over 75,000 cases pending. We just saw the defendant’s initial brief that was submitted on October 1st, appealing the state court’s DALBERT ruling, letting all of our experts in. Plaintiff’s response is due in 30 days. We’ll have oral argument in the beginning of 2025. While that’s ongoing, really important, if you have cases in Delaware, the proof of usage declaration is due by the end of October, October 31st. Reach out to your clients, get them to submit. That records are due at the end of January. While that’s ongoing, we are going to have a stay in Philadelphia State Court while we’re appealing the recusal motion and then there’s a trial that’s supposed to kick off in California. I’d be surprised that the defendants let that go forward. They settled every other case out there that got to trial.
Susan Barfield (02:56):
All right, and very exciting. MTMP is next week. I’ll be excited to see you. Of course, there’s going to be lots of attorneys and partners that are in Vegas next week. Are there any interesting panels that you’re excited to be listening to, Joe?
Joe Fantini (03:12):
Yeah, always look forward to Mass Tort Made Perfect. This one is going to be October 8th to 10th. Susan and I will be there. We’d love to meet everybody in person. Stop by and say hi. What I’m really looking forward to is on October 9th, we have a lot of breakout sessions. We’re going to be focusing on some of these emerging torts. We’ll get updates on hair relaxer. One I’m really interested in hearing about is the talc bankruptcy, the latest on that. Is that case going to stay in Texas? Are we going to get it back in New Jersey? So we’ll get some developments on that. Another important session that they’re having is how to follow up on some of your claimants that you might’ve lost contact with, as we talked about yesterday in the webinar. Really important to have good contact, good follow, follow-up sequence with these claimants to make sure none of ’em are lost. So looking forward to seeing everybody next week.
Susan Barfield (03:59):
Awesome. Well, Joe, as always, thanks so much for taking some time with me and providing these updates and insights, litigations, and if you want to hear more week over week from Joe, please make sure you subscribe to our channel. Thanks so much, Joe.
Joe Fantini (04:15):
Thanks Susan.
