Judge to Decide J&J’s $8.2B Talc Settlement Offer in 2025
Legislation & Litigation
Written by Travis Rodgers | Edited By Amy Edel
A high-stakes trial is ahead for Johnson & Johnson in January 2025. A federal judge in Houston will decide on the company’s $8.2 billion settlement offer. If approved, it will end thousands of cancer lawsuits linked to J&J’s baby powder.
The settlement offer includes plans for a third bankruptcy filing. J&J subsidiary Red River Talc LLC filed a “voluntary prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy case” in September 2024. The Texas Two-Step strategy shifts the cost of talc lawsuits to a subsidiary. It then files for bankruptcy, which ends almost all the cases.
Plaintiffs voted on a multi-billion dollar settlement from J&J, and 83% of them approved the offer. The attorney for holdouts of the proposal insists that claimants rigged the vote in support of the offer. J&J denies those claims.
“J&J thinks it can get this done in months, but if the legitimacy of those votes is called into question, that timeline goes out the window,” Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor told Bloomberg.
“We are confident in the voting process which showed that the proposed bankruptcy plan is indeed what claimants want to end this litigation in a fair and timely manner,” J&J’s worldwide head of litigation Erik Haas said in a statement. “The plan constitutes one of the largest settlements ever reached in a mass tort bankruptcy case.”
J&J’s Latest Bankruptcy Plan and Cancer Claims
A court denied J&J’s previous attempts to file for bankruptcy. The judge ruled twice that J&J wasn’t in financial distress. This time, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez says the company’s latest case is “different” enough from its earlier attempts, filed in New Jersey. They filed this most recent attempt in Texas.
Lawsuits involved in the settlement are ovarian cancer cases. Approval for the plan would resolve 99.75% of J&J’s pending talc lawsuits. Remaining mesothelioma lawsuits will be addressed outside of the settlement plan.
More than 62,000 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against J&J. The suits claim the company’s talc products contained asbestos and caused plaintiffs’ cancer. Court documents highlight a link between asbestos and cancer. In May 2024, the National Institutes of Health released research linking talcum powder to ovarian cancer. J&J stands by its claim that its products didn’t contain asbestos and aren’t responsible for consumers’ cancer.
Recent Mesothelioma Verdict Against J&J
In October 2024, a Connecticut jury ordered J&J to pay $15 million to a man with mesothelioma. Evan Plotkin filed a lawsuit against J&J in 2021, soon after his diagnosis. He blames his illness on J&J’s baby powder.
The jury decided that in addition to the $15 million, the company must also pay punitive damages. They’ll decide that amount at a later date.
Ben Braly, a lawyer for Plotkin, wrote in an email to Reuters, “Evan Plotkin and his trial team are thrilled that a jury once again decided to hold Johnson & Johnson accountable for their marketing and sale of a baby powder product that they knew contained asbestos.”
