Susan Barfield: [0:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tort Talk Thursday. Joe, it’s great to have you here with us this week talking all things Mass Tort. Um, so what is going on in this world?
Joe Fantini: [0:13] Yeah, Susan, thanks for having me. Another busy week here in Mass Torts. Um, we could get started talking a little bit about the social media MDL. So, the social media addiction, uh, there was a ruling that just came down in MDL that dismissed Mark Zuckerberg from the litigation himself individually. [0:29] A couple lawsuits, about 25, had named him. Uh the judge basically found he wasn’t personally liable or responsible for the conduct of Meta. So good news is the litigation’s going forward. We beat back the motion to dismiss about the other defendants, the tech giants. So, we’re going forward with that. [0:48] Should have the first Bellweather trial beginning in early first quarter 2026. So, we’ll keep an eye on that litigation.
Susan Barfield: [0:56] Fantastic. The other litigation I’m interested to learn um updates about, Joe, is Parquat. What have you heard um in this litigation?
Joe Fantini: [1:05] So, in Parquat, we were dealt a blow earlier this year in the MDL when the judge excluded our general causation expert. [1:12] Since that in the MDL, we’ve identified 10 new bellweather cases are getting worked up. Two of those plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their cases. Backups were substituted in. [1:21] So, we’re moving forward with the case specific discovery in those 10 cases. [1:24] Really though, the focus is on Philadelphia where we have about a thousand cases pending right now. [1:28] Expert reports have been exchanged between plaintiffs and defendants and we have a December 4th deadline to file motion for summary judgments and motion to exclude the experts with the oral argument in the beginning of 2025 and we’re about six months out from that April 2025 trial date. [1:45] So, we’ll hear a lot coming out of Philadelphia here in the coming months about that paragquat litigation.
Susan Barfield: [1:49] Any suggestions for firms that have these cases, what they need to be focused on?
Joe Fantini: [1:53] Yeah, if you get the cases, I’d suggest filing right now in Philadelphia. One of the defendants uh is home in Pennsylvania, so that looks like a good location to file. [2:01] So, make sure you’re getting the records. We’re looking for that Parkinson diagnosis and make sure you have either a license amplifier or somebody who worked under somebody that had a license. [2:10] So, keep moving forward those cases, but Philadelphia looks like where you want to be right now.
Susan Barfield: [2:14] Great. And then last, wanted to understand what is happening on the hair relaxer front.
Joe Fantini: [2:19] Yeah, in the hair relaxer MDL, we saw a huge uptick in the last month in filings in the MDL we have about 9,500 cases pending focusing on those three cancers it’s going to be uterine ovarian and endometrial cancer the other injuries like hyctomy aren’t part of the MDL. We have a good discovery process in place, we have a discovery deadline of about six months from now, and then the first bellwether trial is actually scheduled to begin in November 2025 about a year from now. [2:44] So, we’ll see a lot of activity coming up. People are really bullish on this litigation. I think it’s a good time to get involved.
Susan Barfield: [2:48] Awesome. Well, Joe, as always, uh certainly grateful for you to spend a little bit of time with me on Tort Talk Thursday and just providing us with the updates and insights on these litigations.
Joe Fantini: [2:56] Thanks for having me, Susan.
