Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / Talc Trial Set, Bair Hugger Progress, Baby Food MDL & Roblox Lawsuits

Transcript

Talc Trial Set, Bair Hugger Progress, Baby Food MDL & Roblox Lawsuits · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:09
  Welcome back to today's episode of Tor Talk.
• 0:11
  We have an action-packed schedule to go through today, so
• 0:14
  let's hop into it. We have Joe Fan TV and once
• 0:17
  again and John Robinson. Thank you for being here both
• 0:19
  today. Thanks for having me.
• 0:20
  So hopping into the first item we want to talk about, talcum
• 0:24
  powder. We've received some good news
• 0:26
  with the First Post bankruptcy bellwether trial being scheduled
• 0:29
  in California State court. How does this impact what is
• 0:32
  going on with the litigation overall?
• 0:34
  Yeah, Mark, really good news that we have this bellwether
• 0:37
  trial scheduled. As we've talked about before,
• 0:39
  these trials really helped to drive the settlement.
• 0:42
  So after J&J's failed third bankruptcy, we've been working
• 0:46
  up to that point throughout the six months.
• 0:48
  So beginning of November, the trial scheduled in California
• 0:52
  State court, usually we see them taking about a month.
• 0:55
  So I think post Thanksgiving will have a verdict in that
• 0:58
  case. While that trials ongoing, the
• 1:01
  settlement mediations is still picking up steam in the MDL.
• 1:05
  So we had the initial session between the newly appointed
• 1:08
  settlement committee for the plaintiff side in the beginning
• 1:11
  of September. They're gathering additional
• 1:14
  details about exposure, specific diagnosis, things about the
• 1:18
  plaintiffs to hopefully get us towards a resolution.
• 1:21
  I don't think we're going to have a settlement in 2025, but
• 1:24
  these are definitely positive developments and if we can't get
• 1:28
  a settlement in the MDL, look to see some more bellwether trials
• 1:32
  in the beginning of 26. That's good news to hear, talc
• 1:34
  just continuing to move forward. We were stuck at a stalemate for
• 1:38
  so long, so it's great to see progress there.
• 1:40
  I'm excited to talk about something that has been around
• 1:43
  for a really long time. We every once in a while talk
• 1:46
  about legacy mass torts here, ones that have been going on
• 1:49
  for, you know, 34567. We're going to talk about Bear
• 1:53
  Hugger, which has been going on for nearly ten years.
• 1:55
  I remember Bear Hugger almost a decade ago.
• 1:59
  Bear Hugger is the surgical device or post surgical device
• 2:02
  that is meant to prevent infection after a surgery, but
• 2:06
  it actually wound up potentially or allegedly causing infections.
• 2:09
  There's almost 11,000 cases filed in that MDL.
• 2:12
  How do you see that progressing? We're seeing potentially a
• 2:15
  little bit of movement there. Right.
• 2:17
  Like you said, John, this is one that's been around almost 10
• 2:20
  years. The MDL was formed in 2016.
• 2:23
  It was a windy Rd. Basically, our experts got
• 2:26
  excluded. We ended up appealing that up to
• 2:29
  higher Circuit Court. The decision of the District
• 2:32
  Court got overruled. Our experts were allowed back
• 2:35
  in. Then we had COVID, then we had
• 2:38
  the continued delays with that. So this case really dragged on
• 2:41
  and there wasn't significant movement for four or five years
• 2:44
  here in 2025. We we've seen some progress and
• 2:48
  there's been a couple bellwether trials.
• 2:51
  The most recent one was earlier this year in Eastern District of
• 2:54
  Pennsylvania. It was a mistrial because there
• 2:56
  was a hung jury and what the court recently did is identified
• 3:00
  the next wave of 150 remand cases.
• 3:04
  So these are individual cases that are going to be worked up
• 3:06
  for trial, not in the District Court where the MDL is pending,
• 3:10
  but rather in the plaintiffs home court where they would have
• 3:13
  filed the cases. The idea is that when we spread
• 3:16
  these cases out over the country, different judges and
• 3:19
  different courts will have more resources collectively to get
• 3:23
  these plaintiffs to trial. So we started that process.
• 3:26
  We're working up these initial cases cases.
• 3:28
  The trials are going to be sometime first half of 26, but
• 3:31
  this is putting some added pressure on the defendants.
• 3:34
  As you mentioned, we're seeing a continued uptake in the filing
• 3:37
  of these cases, about 11,000 total cases.
• 3:40
  People are hoping we're going to get some sort of resolution. 3M
• 3:44
  has a lot of pressure, a lot of problems going on with various
• 3:47
  litigations. They're really the main
• 3:49
  defendant in the P Foss A, triple F.
• 3:52
  So I don't think we're going to get a conclusion here in 2025,
• 3:55
  but I'm optimistic in 26 we'll finally be able to bring this
• 3:59
  litigation to an end after about a decade of fighting.
• 4:02
  Very exciting to finally see some progress on that tort
• 4:05
  moving to another one that's pretty popular that's kind of
• 4:08
  been flying under the radar. Toxic baby food.
• 4:11
  We have an MVL formed and an important hearing coming up in
• 4:14
  December. What should we expect to see in
• 4:16
  this litigation? Like you said, this is one
• 4:18
  that's been flying under the radar.
• 4:20
  There was a lot of buzz about a year ago.
• 4:22
  I remember that like a lot. A bad mass tort made perfect and
• 4:26
  ultimately there was an MD that was formed that happened in
• 4:29
  April 25. A little bit different approach
• 4:32
  in this litigation. Usually we don't get to the
• 4:35
  causation and the expert rulings until years down the line.
• 4:39
  So for example, in the A triple F litigation was kind of driving
• 4:43
  this potential settlement was the Dalbert hearings that were
• 4:46
  scheduled where the judge was going to rule on and make a
• 4:49
  determination about what cancers are viable.
• 4:51
  Here in this litigation, we're seeing a lot more of that
• 4:54
  discovery upfront and we have that hearing in December and
• 4:58
  after that early January sometime, I anticipate we'll get
• 5:02
  a ruling from the court and that's basically going to tell
• 5:04
  us if these cases are going to be viable in the MDL and able to
• 5:09
  move forward like we usually see.
• 5:11
  We do have some state consolidated action going on
• 5:14
  right now. It's centralized in California
• 5:17
  and the JCCP. So we have two avenues there,
• 5:20
  but a lot of excitements building again for this
• 5:23
  litigation and I think it's going to be one of the bigger
• 5:25
  ones in 26. Off the yeah top of your head,
• 5:28
  you happen to know how many cases are filed in MDL so far?
• 5:31
  I do. So there's a little bit over 210
• 5:34
  cases pending. So remember, most states have
• 5:37
  something called a minor tolling statute, which means the statue
• 5:41
  of limitations doesn't begin to run until the minors of age 18
• 5:46
  years and then the statue runs. I'm not their attorney.
• 5:49
  I can't give them any legal advice, but maybe that's the
• 5:51
  reason why we haven't seen a ton of cases filed just yet.
• 5:54
  Yeah. We had talked about this
• 5:55
  earlier, but I think there's a desire to avoid what happened
• 5:58
  with Zantac, right? Potentially makes sense to hold
• 6:02
  on to these cases right now and then determine next steps after
• 6:05
  this hearing that comes up in December.
• 6:07
  Exactly that. That was maybe a lesson learned
• 6:09
  from Zantac. Like you mentioned there, a lot
• 6:11
  of people got hurt, but one bad ruling kind of ended that whole
• 6:15
  litigation. So while we have a speedier
• 6:18
  docket in the MDL, the plaintiffs aren't prejudice and
• 6:21
  we'll be able to get this ruling and then see what's the best
• 6:24
  court for these really injured, severely injured minor
• 6:28
  plaintiffs. A good topic for us to
• 6:30
  transition into is really been the hot topic of the week and
• 6:32
  we're saving the best for last year.
• 6:34
  We have heard many firms talking about this Roblox litigation and
• 6:38
  I'm sure it is going to be a big focus of attention at MTMP,
• 6:41
  which Joe Mark myself will be at MTMP and we look forward to
• 6:45
  seeing you all there in the coming weeks.
• 6:47
  We'll have some details about some things we'll be doing at
• 6:49
  MTMP. But Roblox has seen reports of
• 6:52
  lawsuits filed across the country.
• 6:54
  Obviously there's no MDL yet. Do you see this being the next
• 6:57
  tort as we've been hearing on the street?
• 6:59
  Yeah. John, I, I think it is going to
• 7:01
  be the next big one. So these cases are horrific.
• 7:04
  These are horrible facts. Again, minor plaintiffs that are
• 7:08
  being sexually abused, even kidnapped.
• 7:11
  And so we're seeing these cases file filed across the country as
• 7:15
  you mentioned. So we have the JPML hearing at
• 7:19
  the end of the month here in September.
• 7:20
  And basically, that's the committee that decides on the
• 7:23
  motions of whether or not an MDL should be centralized or
• 7:27
  consolidate it. So there's no motion currently
• 7:30
  pending to get these cases in an MDLI think it will either happen
• 7:34
  at the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2026.
• 7:38
  So probably within the next six months, we'll have an MDL here.
• 7:42
  And I'm hearing unfortunately, there's hundreds or thousands of
• 7:45
  cases, just like we're saying there's a lot of victims in the
• 7:48
  social media or video game addiction.
• 7:51
  This Roblox litigation sounds like it's going to be huge.
• 7:54
  These people really need our help.
• 7:55
  So this is 1 along with what we just talked about, the toxic
• 8:00
  baby foods that I think is going to be the focus in 2026 lots.
• 8:04
  Of news to be expected over the coming weeks across all these
• 8:07
  different case types as we head into MTMP.
• 8:10
  And everybody gets an opportunity to learn much more
• 8:12
  in detail from a lot of the leaders of these litigations.
• 8:15
  Once again, Joe, thank you so much for joining us for the best
• 8:18
  10 minutes each week in mass torts.
• 8:20
  We will see everybody at MTMP. More details coming up in the
• 8:23
  next few weeks. Thanks for joining Tort Talks.
• 8:26
  Thanks, Joe. Thanks for having me guys.