Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / Uber Assault Trial Could Reshape Litigation, Eli Lilly Fears Blindness Suits, Tylenol Autism Fight Isn’t Over

Transcript

Uber Assault Trial Could Reshape Litigation, Eli Lilly Fears Blindness Suits, Tylenol Autism Fight Isn’t Over · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:09
  Tort Talk is back with Joe Fantini, John and Mark.
• 0:12
  We're here this week not to talk about college football.
• 0:14
  We're here to talk about the latest developments in mass
• 0:17
  torts. Joe, thanks again for joining
• 0:19
  us. Thanks for having me guys,
• 0:20
  really excited to go over a full docket of developments in the
• 0:24
  latest and greatest in the world of mass torts.
• 0:26
  Absolutely. I love how you've coined this,
• 0:28
  the best 10 minutes in mass torts each week.
• 0:31
  We're going to start full steam ahead with the first Uber sex
• 0:34
  assault bellwether trial. We're in that first week and
• 0:38
  it's in California State court. What is the latest from that
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  Bellwether trial? As you mentioned, this is the
• 0:45
  first case to make it to trial and the Uber sex abuse lawsuits.
• 0:49
  So we have parallel litigations going on in the MDL in
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  California federal court and then in state court and that's
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  where this initial trial is. So there's about 600 cases
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  pending in state court. We have about 2000 cases pending
• 1:02
  in the MDL. So right now we're just really
• 1:05
  going over a little bit of the initial motion practice.
• 1:08
  The judge is making rulings on what type of evidence can come
• 1:11
  in or can't come in. A key ruling the judge just
• 1:14
  issued said that we can present evidence that an executive from
• 1:18
  Uber allegedly said that these rape victims were trash.
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  So that's not going to be able to come in.
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  It could inflamed the jury potentially, but this is going
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  to be a hard fought trial. It's going to last a couple
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  weeks here, a little bit different than the traditional
• 1:33
  mass tort cases we see, not focusing so much on the science
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  and we'll see how this shakes out.
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  But after this, the next trial is going to be in the MDL.
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  That's scheduled to kick off before the end of the year.
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  So in the next four to six months, we could have two
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  verdicts. I don't see a global settlement
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  anytime soon, but if we get some big verdicts here, that might
• 1:53
  change this litigation completely.
• 1:55
  When do we expect the update the end of this first trial?
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  Yeah, the first trial I, I think it will last us around through
• 2:01
  the end of the month. So we we should have a verdict
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  here before we kick off October. On to the next one, weight loss.
• 2:09
  We saw an interesting filing by Eli Lilly requesting
• 2:13
  consolidation of lawsuits alleging vision loss.
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  What does this mean for the cases moving forward?
• 2:19
  Yeah. This is very rare.
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  We don't typically see the defendant seek consolidation.
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  And so as you guys know, we have this MDL currently pending here
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  in federal court in Pennsylvania, over 2000 cases
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  and they're alleging stomach issues.
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  We talked last week about this huge ruling about the stomach
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  emptying studies needed for the gastroparesis.
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  While that was going on and the science was developing, we've
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  seen more and more reports of vision loss and clients that
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  took these weight loss medications.
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  So the plaintiffs filed for a consolidation in New Jersey,
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  about 30 different plaintiffs. They're seeking to have a
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  litigation set up in New Jersey for vision loss injuries.
• 3:00
  While that petition was pending, Eli Lilly came over the top and
• 3:04
  they filed a motion to get a new MDL form.
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  So it's separate MDL from these stomach issue cases that's been
• 3:10
  going on for a year. A new MDL for the vision loss.
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  They're seeking to have it in front of the same judge in the
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  same court. So that tells us that they
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  really prefer to be in Pennsylvania federal court
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  instead of New Jersey State court where the plaintiffs are
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  trying. We'll hear this motion at the
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  end of the month here in September.
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  Expect an order in early October.
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  Really interesting move but it shows me they're scared of these
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  vision loss cases. Do you have any idea what
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  percentage of the cases filed include vision loss?
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  Or is it all the ones that aren't currently in the MDL that
• 3:42
  are going to be filed separately?
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  Yeah. So there's under 100 total
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  vision loss cases currently pending.
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  Like I said, in New Jersey State court, we have about 30 of them,
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  not many other cases. There's actually no cases
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  currently in the MDL because those cases were required to be
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  stomach issues. So they're just a smattering of
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  filings and based upon representations and
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  investigations that offended Dunn.
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  So not based upon a huge number of filings, but based upon what
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  they think and their belief that these cases could be better
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  handled in an MDL in federal court, not in New Jersey in an
• 4:17
  MCL. Little bit of news this week
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  that hit the mainstream news cycle with RFK releasing the
• 4:23
  Make America Healthy Again strategy aimed at keeping
• 4:28
  children healthy. We're going to stay out of the
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  policy politics of this, but there is a significant portion
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  of this that discusses the link between Tylenol and autism when
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  we all know about what happened about a year ago with that MDL.
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  How do you think the release of this report will impact these
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  cases? I think it's going to help these
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  cases. So like you mentioned, we had an
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  MDL. It was a big talk, a mass tort
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  made perfect. Everybody was really excited
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  about it. We started the litigation.
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  The judge decided to rule upon expert Dauber motions early on,
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  comic tactic. Usually the cases are fully
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  worked up years later. We got to Daubert, this MDL
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  judge ruled on it initially and excluded all of our experts and
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  basically ended the litigation right there.
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  We appealed that decision obviously.
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  And the good news is the oral argument set to be heard next
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  month. So typically, I don't expect a
• 5:20
  ruling before the end of the year, but early first quarter
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  2026, we'll have a ruling on average, maybe only 8 to 10% of
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  appeals are granted. So, so it's an uphill battle.
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  But with this new development coming out, I think it
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  strengthens our case. And I believe as time goes on
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  and more studies are conducted, it's going to strengthen the
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  cause and the connection between Tylenol and autism.
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  Interesting. As soon as that report came out,
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  the manufacturer's stock tanked by more than 10%.
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  So they're obviously concerned about this.
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  So people who who have a large amount of cases signed
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  originally as part of the MDALE, what is your advice to them
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  right now? You know, they're sitting on a
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  ton of cases. They've delivered mostly bad
• 6:00
  news to their clients they've signed up for so far.
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  What advice do you have for those people listening?
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  Yeah, I don't represent any of them, so I can't give them legal
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  advice. But what I would tell them is
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  the majority of those cases may not have been filed in the MDL
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  court. So there were only maybe 50 or
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  so cases actually filed that the ruling applied to.
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  So in those cases where a lot of them are minors, there's
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  something called a minor tolling statute.
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  So most states have this provision where if somebody
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  under the age of 18 is injured, the statute of limitations on
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  their case doesn't begin to run until they were 18 years old.
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  So a lot of those cases, the statutes are still viable.
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  Again, I don't represent them, so I can't give them any legal
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  advice, but you can wait and see what ends up happening at this
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  appeal argument. And then even if we're
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  unsuccessful, I think we're going to pivot and you'll see a
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  lot of state court action popping up for Tylenol.
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  Definitely going to be a hard case, but just like we lost
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  initially in the MDL, we were able to move on to state court
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  for Zantac litigations and have some success there.
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  So I think, I think we'll be hearing more about Tylenol and
• 7:06
  this litigation is not going anywhere.
• 7:08
  On to Roundup, Bayer announced that is seeking approval of a
• 7:11
  new herbicide called Crop Key. What are your thoughts on this
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  development? Yeah, this is a move that we
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  often see in litigations. A manufacturer could do with
• 7:22
  silent withdrawal or suddenly develop a a new product that's
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  going to replace the product that's in existent that we're
• 7:29
  litigating about. So I've been involved in
• 7:31
  previous cases where say a mesh manufacturing had a certain
• 7:35
  product, we sue, identify the flaws and the problem with that.
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  They develop this new product and bring it to the market.
• 7:42
  That's what it seems like Bear potentially could be doing here.
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  This is going to be a way for them to end this litigation once
• 7:48
  and for all. So it sounds like they're going
• 7:50
  to try beginning in 2028 have this product on the market
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  worldwide. It seems like they may no longer
• 7:56
  be selling Roundup and said that's going to help limit the
• 7:59
  tail on the potential litigation.
• 8:02
  So we won't have people using Roundup in 20302035 developing
• 8:07
  NHL still. There's going to be that latency
• 8:09
  period. But I think this is an example
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  where they learn from their mistakes previously where they
• 8:14
  did the prior settlement and kept the product on the market.
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  The cases kept coming. So it seems to me that they
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  realize that they have to do something different, which is
• 8:23
  what we wanted as plaintiffs attorneys getting this
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  defective, harmful product off the shelves.
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  So it seems like that mission may be accomplished.
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  Still a bit of a ways away, but hopefully making these
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  herbicides a little bit safer for the general populace who
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  uses them, which at the end of the day, is kind of our end
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  goal, right? Keeping people safe from these
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  corporations that may not have their best interests in mind.
• 8:45
  Joe, another great week. I think by next week, we should
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  have some updates in this Uber trial that's going on.
• 8:50
  Maybe some more updates as we head into mass torts on some
• 8:53
  other litigations that we haven't touched on.
• 8:55
  But once again, thanks for joining us on the best 10
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  minutes in Mass Torts each week. Thanks, Joe.
• 9:01
  Thanks for having me.