cancer victims

A Third J&J Bankruptcy Attempt Won’t Resolve Victims’ Talc Claims

In my many years as an attorney seeking to protect consumers from defective products, I’ve never felt a responsibility as heavy as the one I bear for the thousands of women suffering from ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, conditions linked to Johnson & Johnson’s tainted talc products. The profound pain and suffering they and their families endure is immeasurable.

Dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies have revealed the correlation between talc use and these devastating diseases, with evidence pointing to the disturbing presence of asbestos, a notorious carcinogen, within talc.

Rather than acknowledge the mounting scientific evidence and provide fair compensation to the victims, J&J resorted to evasion and legal trickery.

By adopting the disreputable and now notorious Texas Two-Step bankruptcy strategy, J&J did a major disservice to both victims and J&J shareholders.

If the company’s bankruptcy scheme had succeeded, it would’ve been a gross miscarriage of justice. Victims would be robbed of their rightful day in court and forced to accept grossly inadequate compensation.

This maneuver by J&J was a gamble on perceived vulnerabilities within our multi-district litigation system. The wheels of justice often turn slowly, and J&J’s bankruptcy strategy brought the process to a screeching halt.

J&J expected

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Cancer Victims’ Lawyers Vow to Fight J&J Proposed Settlement

Attorneys who have led the charge in litigating cancer claims against Johnson & Johnson denounced the company’s deal with talc claimants as a sham and disgrace to many people who say J&J’s products gave them cancer.

J&J on Tuesday announced a $8.9 billion agreement with talc claimants as it placed subsidiary LTL Management LLC into bankruptcy for the second time. The proposed deal would compensate people who say J&J’s talc-based powders caused cancer, the company said.

The deal, which would pay claimants over the course of 25 years, would bring about a global resolution to the legal saga, J&J said. But many of the firms that have litigated against J&J on behalf of cancer victims for years, representing tens of thousands of claimants, say they were intentionally left out of the settlement. The proposal, they say, offers victims far less than they deserve.

“I strongly believe that the law firms that understand the case, the seriousness of the injury, the costs to the claimants in medical care, couldn’t possibly support something like this,” said Michelle Parfitt, a partner at Ashcraft & Gerel who as co-head of the talc litigation steering committee has helped oversee more than 40,000 claims during multidistrict

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