Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / The $495 Million NEC Victory & The Bard PowerPort Setback

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The $495 Million NEC Victory & The Bard PowerPort Setback · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Tortalk. I'm Mark Rieu alongside John
• 0:03
  Robinson and Joe Fan TV. This week, a defense verdict
• 0:07
  shakes up the Bard power port litigation, a major tow trial
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  gets underway in Los Angeles, The weight loss MDL hits a
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  critical Daubard hearing, and key rulings loom in Depo Rivera.
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  A lot to unpack. Let's get into it, guys.
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  Yeah. And even before we touched on
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  those items, Mark, we had an appeal decision in the NEC case
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  in Missouri State Supreme Court. Joe, it looks like that verdict
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  was upheld in that $495 million NEC case.
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  What can you tell us about what went on there?
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  Stop what you're doing, stop work, stop everything you're
• 0:41
  doing. This roadshow is is not
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  stopping, by the way. We're going to pivot and we have
• 0:45
  another event where we will be live at the Grow or Die
• 0:48
  conference hosted by Morgan and Morgan.
• 0:50
  It is the first and only time John Morgan will take the stage
• 0:53
  in Las. Vegas.
• 0:54
  Nothing like Vegas in June. It's the last time you'll speak
• 0:56
  of that conference ever again, so if you want to see exactly
• 0:59
  how John Morgan plans to grow or die and get all the inside scoop
• 1:02
  on your biggest competitor and how he does it, it's probably a
• 1:05
  great time to attend that conference.
• 1:06
  And Dan Martel, I know you're. A big fan.
• 1:08
  Big fan. I have a scheduled meet up with
• 1:10
  Dan. I'm looking forward to running
• 1:11
  into him. Keynotes are excellent.
• 1:13
  I'm interested to see this format.
• 1:14
  This is inside the theater. Yeah, single track.
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  Everyone hears the same thing. Should be a great event.
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  Thanks. John and Mark.
• 1:21
  Grow or die? June 9th through 10th in Las
• 1:25
  Vegas. Use code.
• 1:27
  JM20 for 20% off tickets back to the show.
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  Yeah. So that was in the state court
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  action. The the biggest verdict to come
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  out in this litigation. Basically the the court on
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  appeal found that the defendants knew that their product could
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  have caused these injuries and they they failed to warn the
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  mother and even her providers about it.
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  And because of that, they upheld the verdict.
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  And then also, they found that the conduct was willful or
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  reckless and that warned it the punitive damages.
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  So we expect this to get appealed up, probably the
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  Supreme Court, but it's unlikely to get taken up.
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  So this $495 million verdict's going to stand.
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  And we had a lot of success in state court.
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  Also a recent development last week and the MDL, you guys
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  remember we talked a lot about how each one of the cases coming
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  up for trial has been getting kicked out on summary judgement
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  recently. The court and the MDL denied the
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  most recent motion for summary judgement.
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  So it looks like we'll be able to get that case to trial before
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  the end of the year. Yeah, no, it's good to see some
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  positive news especially come out of of NEC where it's a very
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  low volume, but potentially a high value cases is evident by
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  that $495 million verdict. And there were some comments by
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  the judge and I encourage everyone to read the Chicago
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  Tribune article that covers it pretty much in depth, but that
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  the judge made some skating comments about the the defense
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  there regarding the punitive damages and and why they are
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  justified. Yeah, not a huge volume case
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  like you said, maybe 2000 cases total between the MDL and very
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  state courts, but very deserving clients, you know, traumatic
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  case that this new one that we just talked about in the MDL
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  surviving the motion for summary judgement is a wrongful death
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  case. So we'll see how that plays out.
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  On to the next one bar Power Port.
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  We were all awaiting the results of the initial Bella trial and
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  the jury came back with a disappointing defense verdict.
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  How did this verdict impact the litigation going forward and
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  what should we be focusing on next?
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  Jail. Definitely a set back in the
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  litigation. Overall, this case involved the
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  infection and basically what the defendants argued was that the
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  plaintiff and his significant other who was kind of using the
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  device at home didn't follow the proper training.
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  And because of that, that's what caused the infection.
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  Plaintiff obviously contested that, but unfortunately the jury
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  came back with the defense verdict.
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  Like you mentioned, a set back for sure.
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  But fortunately in this MDL, we have a number of bellwether
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  trials stacked coming up later this year, the second bellwether
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  trial, unfortunately that case ended up being dismissed.
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  So we're going to have to wait till later this year in the end
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  of the summer to get the next bellwether trial up a little
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  bit. Interesting.
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  In this case, we're kind of focusing on two separate
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  theories. This initial bellwether case was
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  an infection case. The other one's going to be more
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  your traditional defective design case.
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  So we'll see how that plays out. But we should have two other
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  bellwether trials this year. We always learn from our
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  mistakes or really what the jury had to say.
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  We got some good input on them. So these trials go pretty
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  quickly, about two weeks in length.
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  I'm hoping we can win these next two and get this litigation back
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  on track. A little over 3500 cases
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  pending, so not a huge MDLI. Don't think it's going to
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  explode, but if we can get some positive rulings, hopefully we
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  can get some more numbers on there.
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  And pressure barred, which is always a difficult defendant to
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  deal with. Yeah, I've always liked this
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  case. I I feel like the science is
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  there. The infection cases are are
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  obviously different from the other cases.
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  And so we'll see how it plays out still very early on in that
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  MDL. Yeah, it's, it's still a ways to
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  go in that really tough case, you know, tough venue sometimes.
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  We we had this judge in the Bard IVC filter case.
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  They, they had some success there.
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  So it's really going to be a battle.
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  But all's not lost. I think we can turn it around in
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  this next bellwether. One should have that result
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  before the end of the summer. We also have more trials.
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  We've got another bellwether trial kicking off in Los Angeles
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  Superior Court for talc. This involves the families of
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  three women who said they died from ovarian cancer.
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  What are some of the issues everyone should be watching for
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  as this case begins? Yeah.
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  So it's a lot of the same story. The plaintiff side is that the
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  defendants knew going back 60 plus years at this point that
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  their products were, you know, dangerous, contained asbestos
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  that leads to ovarian cancer. Defense side obviously is
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  arguing it's safe. There's never been any concrete
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  studies linking asbestos to any type of ovarian cancer.
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  So we'll see what the jury decides.
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  If you guys remember, in the last case, that was a plaintiff
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  when it was only a $250,000 verdict out of Philadelphia.
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  But at the end of 2025, we had a verdict in the same court, a $40
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  million verdict. So it hasn't really been
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  reported much, but the plaintiffs really are on a roll
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  in this litigation. We got some good momentum going.
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  A lot of trials are stacked. So this case, it involves 3
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  different plaintiffs like you mentioned.
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  John, interesting enough, we have Beasley Allen in this case.
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  If you remember, they've been excluded from New Jersey State
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  court and the MDL, but they're representing one of the
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  plaintiffs. So we got some really strong
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  attorneys. We got a pretty favorable venue.
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  We're all looking a pretty big number.
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  Expect to hear more about this towards the end of the month,
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  beginning of next month, but this is another win for
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  plaintiffs. Hopefully we can keep building
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  on the momentum that we finally have in this litigation after
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  about 15 years. Moving on to a litigation is a
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  lot younger than the talc litigation weight loss well, not
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  as interesting as a trial. The second most important part
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  of any mass tort is upon us with a dauber hearing for the weight
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  loss MDL what should we expect? Yeah, Really exciting time in
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  this litigation. We had the parallel litigations
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  going on in the MDL and in New Jersey State court.
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  We have two type of injuries that we're focusing on the
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  gastro injuries and then also the vision loss cases.
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  This is focusing in on the MDL. It's really focusing on those
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  gastrointestinal injuries. We'll see if anything survives
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  beyond the gastroparesis, but that's really the focus of the
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  litigation. More than 85% of those cases
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  that are pending there involve that type of injury.
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  We'll have a hearing this week. Expect to get a ruling rather
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  quickly, I'd say 60 to 90 days. Then we'll be able to start
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  teeing these cases up for bellwether trials.
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  I think we could get the first trial in the gastro injuries in
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  2027. I, I think this litigation has a
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  lot of space to to grow in the numbers.
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  I think we could get to over that 10,000 case threshold.
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  Some firms may be waiting on the sidelines a little bit till we
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  get this all important Dolber rolling and that's really going
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  to build the momentum and shape this litigation going forward.
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  Anything in particular that you're concerned about during
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  the Dolber hearing? The concerns going to be those
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  secondary injuries, right? Is hospitalization going to stay
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  in? Is the bowel obstruction
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  injuries going to stay in? Which ones really can survive?
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  We had a limiting ruling earlier from this judge we talked about
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  last year where the judge was requiring the gastric emptying
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  studies to prove the gastro precess.
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  We were a little bit surprised by that.
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  So I don't think we're going to get everything we want just
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  based upon the judges prior rulings, but we'll definitely
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  get enough. We feel really confident our
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  experts are going to be able to come in, but just how?
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  How much are the injuries going to be limited?
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  A lot is happening in the Depo Provera litigation.
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  What are some of the key rulings that could shape the litigation
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  that we're currently waiting on? Yeah, We have a big case
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  management conference this week. We've already seen the parties
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  filed their competing Dahlberg motions.
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  So the motions to exclude the experts from plaintiff side and
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  then also for the defense side, we're going to have briefing
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  throughout this month and then towards the end of June is when
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  we're going to have the Dahlberg hearing.
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  They're interesting enough we we still have pending the
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  preemption motion. We all would have thought that
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  would have been ruled upon by this point.
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  I think maybe maybe the judge is just going to discuss it with
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  the parties briefly at the hearing and then we should have
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  the ruling on the preemption before the end of the month.
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  We feel real confident on that. And then like I said, we'll get
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  the Dolbra briefing wrapped up before the end of the month and
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  towards the end of June, we'll have that.
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  Right now, the December 7th initial bellwether trial is
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  holding. We'll report back to everybody
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  to see if there's going to be any sort of settlement
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  discussions before that initial trial, but right now that day's
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  holding and that's what we're really focusing on a.
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  Lot of movement going on. I'm interested in to see how
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  this effects our next power rankings.
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  We've got social media, another social media trial coming up too
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  in about a month, a lot going on.
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  Yeah, that trial then also we're we're still waiting to see
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  what's going to come out of New Mexico with the that second
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  phase of the trial with the AG there could be a huge number, so
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  a lot. That's the nuisance trial,
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  right? Yep.
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  So, so a lot going on in the world of mass torts.
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  Always exciting times. When we get some of these trials
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  going, I expect they'll be a little bit of a rush year,
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  summertime sometimes can be a little bit slow, but hopefully
• 11:43
  some of these trial dates hold and then we'll see, you know
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  what's going on. But pretty good developments
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  here, pretty positive things, a lot of litigations going on.
• 11:53
  So we'll keep everybody updated week to week here and Tort talk.
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  All right, that's a wrap for this week.
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  Another exciting week with Joe Fantini, the Oracle or the
• 12:04
  Great. Also other names available for
• 12:07
  nicknames. Comment down below if you think
• 12:09
  Joe's nickname should be. Those are the two leading with
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  John Robinson. I think next week we might do
• 12:14
  Tor talk. I mean the power rankings.
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  Let's see. I vote we do it because the week
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  after that I'm on vacation so I want to get it in before I leave
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  because I want to know what is #1 after the last power
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  rankings. But that is all.
• 12:27
  Thank you for all the listening in.
• 12:28
  Don't forget to like and subscribe.
• 12:30
  Thank you for tuning in.