Susan Barfield (0:00:06) – Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tort Talk Thursday. Excited to be here week over week with Joe Fantini of Rosen Injury Lawyers. Joe, thanks so much for spending a little bit of your Thursday morning with me.
Joe Fantini – Thanks for having me, Susan. Always love speaking with you and talking about the latest developments in all things mass torts.
Susan Barfield – Yeah. And before we dive in and hear today’s updates on mass tours, I just wanted to take a moment and thank today’s sponsor. And today’s sponsor is Palo Media Group. And Palo truly understands what makes a firm thrive because they’ve experienced it firsthand. And, really, what I appreciate about Palo is that they understand that case acquisition is just one aspect of the process, and they recognize the significance of quality intake and ongoing case management in achieving compensable cases. So if you wanna learn more about Palo, I encourage you to click the link in the description.
So, Joe, I know we’ve got a handful of topics to discuss today. Why don’t we start out and give us a little bit of an update on what’s happening with Zantac?
Joe Fantini (0:01:22) – Zantac litigation continues to go forward. We have right now two trials going on simultaneously simultaneously in Illinois state court. It looks like we might get a verdict before the end of the month in both of them, but we’re feeling pretty optimistic. Previously, there was a defense verdict in the one case to go to verdict in Illinois, then the defendants have been settling pretty much every other case. We feel good about both of those cases. In Delaware, where we got the positive ruling on the experts, we’re moving forward now into the bellwether process. So the cases have been trimmed down to about a 100 bellwether cases. We’re gonna start the process of working them up, going forward with that position, submitting additional information. We’re also really getting the list together of the claims, so getting the proof of use. So it looks like that litigation’s moving forward. Expect to have some good development sometime next year in 2025.
Susan Barfield (0:01:59) – Yeah. That’s great news for Zantac. What have you heard on on Tylenol?
Joe Fantini (0:02:04) – So in Tylenol and the MDL, previously, the judge excluded our expert, but plaintiffs were able to fortunately get the court, to agree to allow us to submit a second general expert on causation. Our expert doctor Ness really qualified, had a lot of really good information. We moved forward with the expert report and the defendants moved to exclude the expert. Unfortunately, the judge came down with the ruling pretty similar to the initial ruling and excluded, the opinions of Doctor Ness. So what this means is basically the MDL as far as the Tylenol litigation is done. I’m hearing some rumors of potential state court action for Tylenol, but that doesn’t look like a really positive toward moving forward.
Susan Barfield – And so that I guess if you have some of those cases, what tell us, what you’re hearing about toxic baby food.
Joe Fantini – So, yeah, toxic baby food is a good potential option for some of those Tylenol cases that you had. We have the same clients, the same profile, the same type of alleged injuries. So what I would recommend is you reach out to those clients that you’ve signed up previously for Tylenol. See if they used one of the half dozen or so baby foods that we’re investigating because that litigation is really moving forward positively. We have the MDL formed and we just plaintiff just filed the master long form complaint. Expect some motion practice here through the rest of the year, but we feel pretty good that’s gonna survive, and that litigation is gonna move forward. So that’s an avenue for all your unsuccessful Tylenol cases.
Susan Barfield (0:03:31) – Yeah. That that is good. Joe, tell us a little bit about what is going on with the acne treatment products.
Joe Fantini (0:03:40) – Yeah. So the acne cases, we have the JPML hearing going on here. There’s 2 more the rest of this year, 1 in September, 1 in December. So basically, we’re alleging that the manufacturers of these acne medications failed to warn about the risk of the products potentially causing cancer. So right now, there’s over 30 lawsuits filed in 10 different jurisdictions. This looks like a case that’s gonna get an MDL form. Expect an order before the end of the month here in July.
Susan Barfield – Okay. And and I guess one question that I’ve been asked several by several attorneys is what do we think are gonna be the torts that are gonna be settled, you know, upcoming settlements? Any any thoughts there, Joe?
Joe Fantini – Yeah. So right now, we have kinda 2 settlements ongoing, hernia mesh and Zantac. I always say the best time to get cases is after the litigation settle. So those are cases that are still viable. We’re seeing a lot of action there. And then if we have probably 3 other ones that I think will have a settlement in the next year or so. I’m looking at AFFF with the first trial scheduled in the beginning of 2025. Paraquat along the same lines, the first trial scheduled in Philadelphia in April of 2025 even though the MDL isn’t moving as long as well. And then the other one is Bair Hugger that was flying under the radar for years. That litigation’s really picking up. So I don’t think we’ll have another big settlement here in 2024, but in 2025, looks like a great year with a lot of cases coming up on trial, which drives the settlements.
Susan Barfield (0:05:07) – Fantastic. Well, Joe, as always, I really appreciate you taking little time on your Thursday morning to share these updates and insights to the industry. Certainly appreciate our listeners for joining. You don’t wanna miss out on these updates. Please make sure to subscribe to our Tort Talk Thursdays week over week. And Joe and our listeners, we hope you have a fantastic rest of your week.
Joe Fantini – Thanks for having me.
