Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / Mass Tort Power Rankings: Top 10 Cases to Watch Right Now (December 2025)

Transcript

Mass Tort Power Rankings: Top 10 Cases to Watch Right Now (December 2025) · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:09
  Welcome back to Tort Talk. It's John, Mark and Joe Fantini.
• 0:12
  Here it is December. We just finished November.
• 0:16
  Thanksgiving is done, we're heading into the home stretch of
• 0:19
  2025, and we have the next power rankings for you today, Joe.
• 0:24
  We've got the top ten counting down backwards, starting with
• 0:27
  #10 let's talk about talc, the largest active mass tort with
• 0:32
  over 70,000 cases pending. Do you think we are nearing a
• 0:35
  settlement? Yeah, John, like you mentioned,
• 0:37
  this is the most active, largest mass tort we have going on right
• 0:41
  now. All eyes are focused on
• 0:43
  California State court where we have the first bellwether case
• 0:46
  post bankruptcy ongoing. We should have a verdict
• 0:50
  hopefully before the end of 2025.
• 0:53
  And then there's a number of trials scheduled throughout 26.
• 0:57
  It seems like the pressure's really on the defendants Johnson
• 1:01
  and Johnson in this case. So I do think we're going to
• 1:03
  have some good news in 26. The reason why this case comes
• 1:07
  in low in the rankings is with 70,000 cases already filed, it's
• 1:11
  going to be hard to find new cases.
• 1:13
  So I believe in this case, I think we're going to have a
• 1:15
  resolution next year after almost 15 years of litigation,
• 1:19
  but most of the cases are already accounted for at this
• 1:22
  point. Yeah.
• 1:22
  When we're talking about the power rankings here, we're
• 1:24
  talking about cases that firm should consider getting into,
• 1:27
  not necessarily cases that will or will not have the potential
• 1:31
  to result in great outcomes. We're just looking at where
• 1:33
  people should potentially be looking at to invest in some
• 1:36
  marketing moving into December. Mark is keeping track.
• 1:39
  As you can see here on our list moving up to #9 we've got Depo
• 1:44
  Provera. We're still waiting on the
• 1:46
  court's preemption ruling, but filings continue to come in.
• 1:48
  With the litigation nearing 1500 cases in the MDL, how does this
• 1:52
  litigation play out over the next three months?
• 1:55
  Mike, you mentioned, John, that all important preemption ruling
• 1:58
  is going to really determine whether these cases stay in the
• 2:01
  MDL or we're going to have to pivot and move on to cases in
• 2:04
  state court. There's been a huge uptick in
• 2:07
  filings. That was because the judge
• 2:09
  required firms in leadership to basically get their cases on
• 2:12
  file. I think we're going to end up
• 2:14
  winning on this preemption ruling, which will be great.
• 2:17
  However, due to the fact that this medication was used going
• 2:21
  back 40 plus years, we found a little bit of difficulty setting
• 2:25
  the records in order to verify the type of medication that was
• 2:29
  applied, who was the manufacturer.
• 2:31
  So another case. We all believe in a really
• 2:33
  important case. But due to the fact that the
• 2:35
  records are so old in some of these cases, that's why it's
• 2:38
  coming in right now. And #9 along with the
• 2:41
  uncertainty of that preemption ruling, if we get a favorable
• 2:44
  ruling, this will skyrocket up the rankings in the coming
• 2:47
  months. When is that ruling expected?
• 2:50
  Yeah, There's no timeline when it's required from the judge to
• 2:53
  give us a ruling. We think it's probably going to
• 2:55
  come down in February next year. Usually we see about 60 to 90
• 3:00
  days from the time of the oral argument until the rulings
• 3:03
  issued. Great.
• 3:04
  Thank you. Moving into #8 we've got the
• 3:07
  weight loss drug category with two potential cases, both the
• 3:10
  gastrointestinal injuries as well as the vision loss
• 3:12
  injuries. Do you think we have a long way
• 3:14
  to go in this litigation? Unfortunately, I do.
• 3:17
  This is a complicated case because we have a number of
• 3:20
  different defendants with a number of different injuries.
• 3:23
  So the gastrointestinal injuries are gastroporitis, We're seeing
• 3:27
  small bowel obstructions, we're seeing these other intestinal
• 3:31
  injuries. So getting experts to work up
• 3:33
  all of the cases makes it more complicated.
• 3:35
  What everybody's really excited about right now are these vision
• 3:39
  loss cases. These cases are very rare at
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  this point, but now that there's more information out there, I
• 3:44
  expect that there'll be a lot more importantly before the JPML
• 3:48
  panel this week. There's going to be an argument
• 3:50
  on whether or not those vision loss cases get consolidated in
• 3:54
  front of the MDL along with the gastro injuries, or there's
• 3:57
  going to be two separate tracks. We saw in New Jersey, the court
• 4:01
  there and state court decided to keep them separate and that's
• 4:04
  where I think the JPML panel is going to do.
• 4:06
  But a lot of excitement in those cases.
• 4:08
  It's going to be a couple more years, unfortunately.
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  We'll keep seeing the case count go up as we move forward.
• 4:14
  Yeah, we've seen these weight loss cases.
• 4:16
  This has evolved over the past couple of years since it really
• 4:18
  made the news. And to hear that we still have a
• 4:21
  few years away before it really makes some major progress.
• 4:25
  I'm really just showcases the timeline of mass torts in the
• 4:28
  current climate at #7 we have toxic baby food.
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  So it did move down a few spots from our last rankings.
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  What are you looking for in this mass court?
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  Yeah. Right now we're waiting on the
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  all important Dahlberg hearing. So next week we have the
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  Dahlberg hearing scheduled for an entire week.
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  Both sides are going to get to question the experts from the
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  plaintiffs and the defendants. They're going to get to give a
• 4:50
  30 minute opening and then a closing similar to the timeline
• 4:54
  that we talked about about the preemption ruling.
• 4:57
  We're going to look about 60 to 90 days out to get the ruling on
• 5:01
  these Dalbert. So I'm feeling good about these
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  cases, really important cases, and I believe in them.
• 5:06
  However, it looks like there's a little bit more momentum in some
• 5:09
  of the other higher ranked mass torch right now.
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  But if we do end up prevailing on these Dalbert hearings, this
• 5:16
  is another case that's going to skyrocket.
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  Expect to see 10s of thousands of cases.
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  Filed #6 We actually see one of the cases that were in our ones
• 5:25
  to watch last month jump up not even just into the bottom half
• 5:29
  of the top 10, but number six. So rising from 1:00 to watch.
• 5:34
  What's the next key date in this litigation for Roblox?
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  Roblox is the one that everybody was buzzing about at Mass Torn
• 5:40
  Made perfect. We had the petition filed to get
• 5:43
  in front of the JPML. That's happening at the December
• 5:47
  hearing. It's very, very likely that
• 5:49
  we're going to get this case consolidated.
• 5:51
  Plaintiffs are seeking to have it out in California, a great
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  venue where we've had other mass torts just like the Roundup
• 5:58
  litigation. So I expect that to be formed.
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  And as we talked about on the podcast, these injuries in these
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  cases are horrific. These are really, really bad
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  cases. And it seems like when we get
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  more information out there, the defendants knew about this and
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  really didn't do enough. It seems like these are going to
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  be strong liability, strong damages cases.
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  So this is one that everybody's really excited about.
• 6:21
  I expect it to be the new kid on the block with an MDL form
• 6:25
  before the end of the year. Yeah.
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  So Roblox, as we have talked about in the past, is one of
• 6:30
  these platforms that seems to be the era of platforms and the
• 6:33
  next few that we have in our power rankings.
• 6:36
  Actually also our platforms coming in at #5 we have Uber sex
• 6:39
  abuse, which did receive a small drop over last month's power
• 6:42
  rankings, but we do have a trial approaching in the MDL.
• 6:46
  Why did you move this one down from last month's power
• 6:50
  rankings? Again, it's nothing so much
• 6:53
  negative about Uber litigation. It's more so seems to be more
• 6:57
  momentum in the cases in our top five.
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  So like you mentioned, we have this first MDL trial kicking off
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  in about 45 days. That's going to be in January.
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  As you remember, we had the first trial in state court.
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  Unfortunately, the jury found that Uber was negligent.
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  However, there wasn't any connection between the damages
• 7:16
  suffered by the plaintiff and Uber.
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  We're hoping to overcome that hurdle, but we have almost 3000
• 7:22
  cases filed. Seems like people are pretty
• 7:24
  excited about this case. But like I said, I think there's
• 7:27
  a little bit of a better opportunity right now and the
• 7:30
  cases in our top five that we're about to get into.
• 7:33
  Another platform, Mass Tort. We've got social media
• 7:36
  addiction. This one's been around for a few
• 7:37
  years. We have a bellwether trial
• 7:39
  scheduled each day. We seem to get more bad news for
• 7:41
  the big tech companies. We've had all kinds of news come
• 7:44
  out over the past few weeks about different types of cases
• 7:47
  being filed against that GPT as well.
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  How do you think the social media addiction case shakes out?
• 7:52
  This isn't looking good for the big tech companies.
• 7:54
  Like you said, as the filings are happening and we're inching
• 7:58
  forward and getting closer to that initial bellwether case,
• 8:01
  there's a ton of bad press and bad news coming out.
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  It looks like even the heads of these huge companies like
• 8:07
  Zuckerberg are going to be required to testify at trial.
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  That dynamic alone makes this a really strong case and shows how
• 8:15
  much some of these tech companies have to lose.
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  So because we have the trial date set, it looks like there's
• 8:20
  going to be a number of bellwether cases in 26.
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  And because this case has been around for maybe 3 or 4 years at
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  this point, there's a ton of pressure.
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  Seems like there's a lot of opportunity for people to get
• 8:31
  involved. And I like this case and that's
• 8:33
  why we have it at #5. I recommend for those of you who
• 8:36
  are interested in learning more about the social media addiction
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  cases and kind of keeping up on this news as it progresses on an
• 8:41
  almost daily basis, go on LinkedIn, follow Laura Marquez
• 8:44
  Garrett. She does a great job at keeping
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  everybody up to date on exactly what's happening in these cases,
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  showcasing some of the harms that are coming out in real
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  personal stories. Similarly to social media
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  addiction at #3 we have video game addiction.
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  This mass tort makes its entry into the top three for the first
• 9:00
  time, rising a few spots from the last list.
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  What makes this case more appealing than last month as we
• 9:05
  head into 2026, Joe? As time goes along, we keep
• 9:09
  getting more and more evidence, and it looks like according to
• 9:13
  rumors on the industry there, there's some interest in some of
• 9:16
  the big players on attempting to resolve some of these cases,
• 9:19
  hopefully without protracted litigation.
• 9:22
  Law firms have been working on these cases for a number of
• 9:25
  years. They've made some progress here.
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  There's a number of different defendants, a number of huge
• 9:30
  defendants with really deep pockets, and the potential pool
• 9:34
  plaintiffs is huge. We're looking at hundreds of
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  thousands of minors who would have been impacted by this.
• 9:40
  So I expect this litigation to keep growing and growing.
• 9:43
  I think ultimately we'll be able to get a resolution, but due to
• 9:46
  the fact that the defendants have the very deep pockets, the
• 9:50
  potential pool was huge and the liability picture keeps getting
• 9:53
  stronger and stronger. That's why we have this as one
• 9:56
  of the best tours to get involved with.
• 9:58
  Yeah, super interesting. We're seeing roadblocks at
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  number six with the allegations of all the issues with minors.
• 10:05
  And then we also have video game addiction.
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  Now at #3 these platforms really are facing some major, major
• 10:10
  headwinds into 26 at #2 We've got Hair relaxer.
• 10:15
  So this mass tort has over 11,000 cases that are pending
• 10:19
  remains at #2 on the list. What has you maintain excitement
• 10:22
  about Hair Relaxer? Like you said, we have more than
• 10:25
  11,000 cases filed. Anytime we get past that 10,000
• 10:29
  case threshold, that makes me interested and excited because
• 10:34
  that shows there's huge potential liability for the
• 10:37
  defendants. We've been working these cases
• 10:39
  for years. There's a lot of fighting going
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  back and forth between the plaintiffs and the different
• 10:44
  defendants on discovery. But the good thing is we have
• 10:47
  some really important dates coming up.
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  We're going to have signs stay in the beginning of 26.
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  We'll go through experts and then we'll get to a bellwether
• 10:55
  trial. The issue is, are the defendants
• 10:58
  going to let this case actually go through to trial or they're
• 11:01
  going to try to settle it like we saw with C Pap?
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  So a lot of cases there, a lot of momentum, really important
• 11:07
  case that a lot of us are working on and these victims
• 11:10
  really need our help. But the liability picture seems
• 11:13
  very, very strong. So that's why I think this case
• 11:16
  is going to have a positive outcome, hopefully before the
• 11:18
  end of next year. And before we reveal #1 we're
• 11:22
  going to go to ones to watch. We've got 2 ones to watch this
• 11:26
  month, starting with Tylenol, where oral arguments have been
• 11:29
  concluded in the Second Circuit. Can the case come back to life
• 11:32
  after all the news and mainstream media?
• 11:34
  This case looked dead right. Two years ago, we got an adverse
• 11:38
  ruling in MDL. It didn't look like there was
• 11:40
  any chance to revise the case. The plaintiffs kept fighting.
• 11:44
  We saw what the administration did about coming out and saying
• 11:47
  there was an association between taking Tylenol while pregnant
• 11:50
  and autism and ADHD. That caused the oral argument to
• 11:54
  be pushed back. Based upon the questioning from
• 11:56
  the justices, it seem like the court believed that the MDL
• 12:01
  judge might have overstepped the bounds there and excluding every
• 12:04
  single one of plaintiffs experts.
• 12:06
  So based upon how the hearing went, I'm feeling optimistic
• 12:10
  that at least some of these claims are going to be able to
• 12:12
  proceed. I don't think it's going to be
• 12:14
  everything. This could be another very big
• 12:16
  mass tort. It's just really risky right
• 12:18
  now. We should have a decision in the
• 12:20
  next 90 days or so. Definitely keep your eyes on
• 12:23
  this follow the news not going to be hard to miss it because it
• 12:26
  is all over the news any time that there's an announcement
• 12:28
  from the administration. One more in our wants to watch
• 12:31
  this one started peeking out over the past couple of months.
• 12:33
  Online gambling addiction. It's the new kid on the block,
• 12:37
  but it has been causing problems for a while.
• 12:40
  What's the general criteria for cases that are being
• 12:42
  investigated in the online gambling addictions?
• 12:44
  Yeah, another platform case, right.
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  We talked a little bit about how now it's the era of the
• 12:49
  platforms. We have Uber, video game, social
• 12:52
  media, Dixon, Roblox and now this online gambling.
• 12:55
  So what the general criteria firms are running with are
• 12:58
  people that use online platforms like FanDuel and they ended up
• 13:02
  suffering significant losses if they've been diagnosed with any
• 13:06
  sort of gambling addiction or even if they started using it
• 13:10
  when they're a minor and got hooked on it.
• 13:12
  So the criteria is still evolving.
• 13:14
  I think we'll see at a JPML in 26, a motion to get this
• 13:18
  consolidated in an MDL likely will be granted, will follow the
• 13:22
  road map for the other platform cases.
• 13:25
  But everybody's talking about this.
• 13:27
  This could be the bell of the ball at the first mass tort in
• 13:30
  26. What is the inflection point of
• 13:33
  losses that firms are generally looking at?
• 13:35
  Yeah, each firm's different, I think.
• 13:37
  I think if somebody's been diagnosed with gambling
• 13:40
  addiction, it would change it. But there's different tiers.
• 13:43
  I'm hearing some firms are looking at 25,000 for losses and
• 13:47
  up, some have a little bit less, but I think a couple 100 might
• 13:51
  not survive unless there was that gambling addiction
• 13:54
  diagnosis. But generally, that's the point
• 13:57
  people are looking for right now.
• 13:59
  Right. Thanks, Joe.
• 14:00
  Now, before we reveal #1 on the power rankings for December, I
• 14:04
  want to remind everybody, please like and subscribe so that you
• 14:07
  can get updates whenever we are releasing new videos.
• 14:10
  We try to release Tort Talks every week.
• 14:12
  We also release our podcast episodes once a week and a
• 14:15
  number of other different features as well.
• 14:16
  So click the subscribe button, make sure that you are being
• 14:20
  alerted whenever we release new episodes.
• 14:22
  And we hit you with #1 again, Joe, we've got Roundup.
• 14:26
  This case started the year in the number one spot, still
• 14:28
  remains in the number one spot. Why do you still like this case?
• 14:31
  I think this is the only masked torrid out there that we know
• 14:34
  the defendants want to settle. And you don't have to take it
• 14:37
  from me, just listen to Bear CEO.
• 14:39
  He said his goal is to wrap up this litigation in 2026.
• 14:43
  We talked recently on the podcast about how bears been
• 14:47
  settling a number of these large verdicts out of Georgia and
• 14:52
  Pennsylvania. They just lost an appeal for
• 14:55
  over 20 million in California. So it seems like their strategy
• 14:59
  is get all of those cases cleared out, resolve the
• 15:02
  appeals, don't let any more cases go to trial, and take
• 15:05
  their shot at the Supreme Court if it goes there in the summer.
• 15:09
  Regardless of that outcome, they want this litigation to end.
• 15:12
  They've already paid more than $10 billion.
• 15:15
  If you can get some cases, it seems like the time's still
• 15:18
  there. Started the year at #1.
• 15:20
  It's going to remain at #1 until we have a global.
• 15:23
  Thank you so much for the updates, Joe, Mark, any
• 15:25
  commentary? Very exciting top ten power
• 15:29
  rankings. I'm very excited to see where we
• 15:31
  come into in 2026 when we do it in a month in January, if
• 15:35
  anything changes. Thank you so much for watching.
• 15:38
  Remember, click that subscribe button so you can be alerted
• 15:40
  when we release new episodes of Tor Talk and our podcast.
• 15:43
  Joe, we will see you next week. Thanks guys.