Status Conference Held In Latest Talcum Powder Cancer Lawsuit News
The first New Jersey multicounty litigation status conference that was previewed in talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit news took place on January 13.
Monday, February 15, 2016 - The first status conference in the New Jersey multicounty litigation relating to the allegations made against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) concerning their talcum powder products' relationship to ovarian cancer was held on January 13. The status conference, which has been mentioned often in recent talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit news, was one of the first pretrial proceedings to take place since more than 100 lawsuits were consolidated in February. There are now at least 130 talcum powder lawsuits filed before a single state judge in the Atlantic City Superior Court.
The status conference allows the attorneys involved in the case to confer with the judge and others involved with the proceedings concerning how the litigation will advance through the pretrial process. The conclusion of the status conference allows the multicounty litigation to continue towards discovery, potential bellwether trials, and other steps that will move to litigation to its eventual end.
The talcum powder lawsuits in New Jersey are of significant importance to nationwide talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit news as the actions filed against the defendants take place in the home state of talcum powder manufacturer J&J. The lawsuits were originally proposed to be transferred into multicounty litigation on May 19 by J&J. The defendant claimed that there were enough similar lawsuits filed in the state for multicounty litigation to be an appropriate path to take to expeditiously resolve the claims.
The plaintiffs responded to J&J's request to consolidate the lawsuits by supporting the motion, but requesting that the lawsuits instead be sent to the Middlesex County Court. The switch from the defendant's preference of the Atlantic City Superior Court was made because plaintiffs claimed the Middlesex court had a smaller docket and would be able to spend more resources on litigating the multicounty litigation. Despite the fact that 87 of the talcum powder lawsuits were already filed in Atlantic City, the plaintiffs still felt it would be more suitable for the proceedings for them all to be transferred before the Middlesex County Court.
The first talcum powder cancer lawsuit news related to this multicounty litigation came in January of 2014 when the first talcum powder action was filed in the state against J&J. By September, only 14 cases had been filed in addition to the initial case 9 months prior. The number of actions continued to grow, however, and by the time the motion to centralize the lawsuits was filed by J&J, there were 103 plaintiffs up for multicounty consolidation before the New Jersey Supreme Court.
The New Jersey Supreme Court in the end decided to consolidate the lawsuits before the Atlantic City Superior Court. The most recent case list, which was updated on January 23, listed 130 lawsuits currently pending in the multicounty litigation. The transferring of lawsuits into multicounty litigation is commonly undertaken when there are a large number of suits alleging similar questions of fact that would benefit from the efficiency of consolidating all the actions before a single judge. The cases in this multicounty litigation all allege that J&J knew of the medical research that had been conducted into a connection between talcum powder and an increased risk for the contraction of ovarian cancer.
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