Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / $2.1B Roundup Verdict Stands as J&J Talc Trial and Tylenol MDL Heat Up

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$2.1B Roundup Verdict Stands as J&J Talc Trial and Tylenol MDL Heat Up · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:09
  Welcome to this week's episode of Tor Talk.
• 0:11
  We are live in person in the Orlando office with Joe Fantini.
• 0:14
  If you like this content that we bring to you on a weekly basis,
• 0:17
  please make sure you like and subscribe to our channels so you
• 0:20
  get updated for all new episodes.
• 0:22
  Let's get into it. Roundup A huge development in
• 0:25
  the Roundup litigation, we saw Bayer withdraw their appeal of a
• 0:28
  2.1 billion dollar verdict in Georgia.
• 0:31
  Is this part of a broader scheme going on with Bayer?
• 0:35
  Yeah, good question. So all the reports we're
• 0:39
  focusing on this one case where the plaintiff secured that huge
• 0:42
  $2 billion verdict. We saw Bayer file a notice
• 0:46
  indicating that they withdrew their appeal.
• 0:49
  So that means that that case ended up settling.
• 0:52
  We don't know the total amount that it was resolved for, but I
• 0:55
  was reviewing some of the dockets in Philadelphia and we
• 0:58
  saw the same exact thing happen. So there were three very large
• 1:01
  plaintiff verdicts in each one of the cases.
• 1:04
  Barrett filed an appeal but just withdrew the appeals, again
• 1:07
  indicating those cases settled. So it appears this is part of a
• 1:11
  larger, broader strategy from Bear to resolve all of the cases
• 1:15
  that are up on appeal. And then I anticipate that
• 1:18
  they'll be settling off one off cases and not letting any
• 1:21
  further cases go to trial. This strategy is what they're
• 1:24
  focusing on while they're trying to get that petition heard by
• 1:27
  the Supreme Court. We'll probably know by by the
• 1:30
  end of January whether or not that goes up.
• 1:32
  I mean it was at the top of your list.
• 1:34
  We did power rankings and those are coming up again soon.
• 1:36
  So it's good to see that we're making progress on Roundup from
• 1:39
  the plaintiff side, progress in Georgia, progress in
• 1:41
  Pennsylvania, potentially we can make some big moves in 2026 in
• 1:45
  the Roundup docket. So we have talc, all eyes are on
• 1:47
  California were the first post bankruptcy J&J talc powder
• 1:51
  bellwether trials underway. Joe, what can you tell us about
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  the trial? We've all been waiting for this
• 1:56
  day to finally come after two or three years, the delays,
• 1:59
  plaintiffs finally have their day in court here.
• 2:02
  And just like you mentioned, the trial just kicked off in
• 2:04
  California State court. It's the first post bankruptcy
• 2:08
  filing case and it started off with a bang.
• 2:10
  We had the FDA former commissioner testifying that J&J
• 2:15
  knew about the risk associated with Tau for over 50 years and
• 2:19
  they that risk from the public and the plaintiffs.
• 2:22
  Obviously J&J's fighting that too the nail.
• 2:25
  But this just shows how high stakes this case is because
• 2:28
  after this trial, there's another couple scheduled for
• 2:31
  2026. So the pressure is really
• 2:33
  heating up on J&J and this is one that we're all going to be
• 2:36
  watching through the rest of this year.
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  We'll probably have a verdict in this first initial case before
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  the end of December 25. Well, it's very exciting news.
• 2:45
  Yeah. Who's?
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  Trying this case, Joe. One of the main firms involved
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  is going to be Beasley Allen, so they're taking the lead in the
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  MDL as well. So they're one of the firms
• 2:55
  that's really leading the way in both state court and the MDL
• 2:59
  all. Right next one up, we got
• 3:00
  Tylenol. A crucial oral argument was held
• 3:02
  before the 2nd Circuit earlier this week where the panel heard
• 3:06
  arguments about the exclusion of plaintiffs experts in the MDL.
• 3:09
  How did the hearing go? This was another huge
• 3:12
  development in the mass tour world.
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  If you guys remember, this oral argument got delayed about two
• 3:17
  months after the administration came out and said there was an
• 3:20
  association between women taking Tylenol while they were pregnant
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  and then the children developing ADAD or autism.
• 3:29
  Basically what happened during this argument is we're making a
• 3:32
  similar argument saying that the judge in the MDL went too far.
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  The judge in the MDL, instead of just being a gatekeeper ruling
• 3:40
  on what that evidence gets to the jury, put on the white lab
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  coat and really dove into the science and said this study is
• 3:47
  credible. This is what I believe in.
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  That's the plaintiff's argument. And it seemed based upon some of
• 3:53
  the line of questioning from the judges, that they felt like the
• 3:57
  MDL court might have gone a little bit too far in excluding
• 4:01
  all of the experts. So right now we're feeling
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  positive about a ruling coming out of there.
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  It's likely not going to be until the first quarter of 26,
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  but this is going to have very broad implications not just for
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  the Tylenol MDL, which could balloon into the largest mass
• 4:16
  tort in history, but also further mass towards going
• 4:19
  forward about the appropriate standard for the miscibility of
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  experts. So we're really excited about
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  this or argument. I'm excited to see where this
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  goes. This is one of the first ones
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  I'm seeing that's currently crossing from mass tort into
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  popular culture at the same time.
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  So if this continues to move forward, it's going to be a
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  major event in U.S. History, History, political
• 4:38
  climate, Culture. That just really shows how, you
• 4:42
  know, these cases really impact everyday people, right?
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  A lot we talk about here is these cases, but we have to
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  remember these are real individuals.
• 4:51
  These are real humans that lives were impacted.
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  And that's why it's so important that we fight these cases.
• 4:56
  Yeah, absolutely. Regardless of where you stand in
• 4:58
  the political spectrum, if you're following these cases and
• 5:01
  this litigation, there's a lot that's happening right now.
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  And we will keep you up to date here as we continue week after
• 5:07
  we get to our talk. Rounding out our cases this
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  week, we have ChatGPT suicide litigation.
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  So we touched on this briefly last week.
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  We're talking about all the different platform MDLS.
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  And what are you hearing about this ChatGPT litigation?
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  Yeah, this is just another example of how these cases
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  crossover into real life, right? Everyday life, everybody's
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  talking about AI and how it's going to help them.
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  Right now, there's about a half dozen lawsuits filed where
• 5:33
  individuals are alleging that they engage with ChatGPT and
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  then ultimately ended up injuring themselves.
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  And even some cases where there were some suicides.
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  You guys probably all saw some of the transcripts and the chats
• 5:45
  that were going on. You know, this is totally wrong
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  and there needs to be some sort of safeguards in place that
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  protects the individuals that clearly need help.
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  So it's a really sad case and I expect unfortunately more of
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  them to occur in the coming years until there's changes put
• 6:01
  in place this. One is it's it hits very close
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  to home, right? Mark and I both have young
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  children. We actually work with Matt
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  Bergman, Social Media Victims Law Center, who filed these
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  cases. So we are very close to this
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  litigation. We're also huge proponents of
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  the use of AI, right in law firms with marketing helping
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  operations. So we do believe that AI has its
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  place in the world, but it definitely needs guardrails to
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  help protect adults and children.
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  This is a case we're going to be watching, I'm sure we're going
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  to be talking about it. And again, that's why we do
• 6:34
  these cases because there needs to be changed.
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  And without us coming forward telling these stories there,
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  there really won't be those guardrails put in place.
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  So a lot going on here in mass torts.
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  We're about 45 days away from the end of the year, but we'll
• 6:47
  have a lot more developments before we move into 26.
• 6:50
  Thanks, Joe. This is an absolutely
• 6:52
  action-packed episode. Next week we're taking off I
• 6:54
  believe for Thanksgiving and then we'll be back at the
• 6:56
  beginning of the month in December with our second ever
• 7:00
  power rankings to close out the year.
• 7:03
  Happy Thanksgiving, Joe Happy Thanksgiving to those of you
• 7:05
  watching at home.