Thousands Pursue Potential Talcum Powder Lawsuits
As recent Johnson & Johnson's baby powder lawsuits continue to pile up in courts around the country, the line for those hoping to successfully file their own has shown precipitous growth.
Sunday, August 7, 2016 - Following millions in damages awarded to plaintiffs in talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit trails this year, thousands of potential plaintiffs have been querying law offices nationwide to discover if they have grounds for a lawsuit against the health care company. A single law firm that was involved in the first talcum powder cancer lawsuit trial in 2016 claims to have received more than 17,000 requests for information concerning potential claims, 12,000 of which they are currently investigating. The number of potential plaintiffs in the litigation led to one of the current plaintiffs filing a motion to transfer lawsuits into multidistrict litigation in June.
There are at least 1,200 Johnson & Johnson's baby powder lawsuits currently pending against the company for failing to warn consumers about the link between their talcum powder products and an increased risk for ovarian cancer. Talcum powder ovarian cancer lawyers will likely see that number balloon in the coming weeks and months as news of the two cases that have gone to trial spreads around the country.
The first talcum powder cancer lawsuit trial this year took place in February and involved claims brought by the son of a woman who died from ovarian cancer months before the proceedings began. The Johnson & Johnson's baby powder cancer lawyers representing the plaintiff not only brought before the court decades of medical research demonstrating a correlation between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, but they also revealed internal Johnson & Johnson documents that proved the company had been aware of the research being conducted into talc carcinogenicity in the 1990s. The research coupled with the internal correspondence was enough to convince the jury to rule against Johnson & Johnson. They ordered the company to pay $72 million in damages, $10 million compensatory and $62 million punitive.
That $72 million ruling was followed up three months later with another large award for a talcum powder cancer lawsuit plaintiff, this time to the tune of $55 million for a living claimant. Presenting much of the same evidence as was introduced in the February talcum powder cancer lawsuit trial, the living plaintiff was able to prove to the jury that Johnson & Johnson held responsibility for her ovarian cancer diagnosis and owed her damages for the physical and emotional toll the disease had taken on her life.
Though these trials settled just two of the more than 1,200 Johnson & Johnson baby powder cancer lawsuits pending around the country, the exorbitant amounts awarded to the plaintiffs made headlines worldwide and led to an uptick in the filing of talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits around the country. The plaintiff who recently filed for the claims to be transferred into an MDL has a good case for their consolidation, as most of the talcum powder lawsuits share common questions of fact and are plentiful enough to benefit from the high-volume efficiencies of multidistrict litigation.
Given that thousands of potential plaintiffs continue to seek damages from Johnson & Johnson, some talcum powder attorneys and legal experts claim that the company may elect to settle the outstanding talcum powder lawsuits with a lump sum settlement if they lose too many additional trials going forward. It may be the company's best option given the strong reactions from juries in favor of the plaintiffs to date and the growing number of talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits still to come against the Johnson & Johnson.
OnderLaw, LLC -