On Friday, July 28, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed the Chapter 11 case filed by Johnson & Johnson’s talc unit, LTL Management LLC, stating that the debtor did not meet the requirements...
$224M J&J Talc Litigation Verdict Overturned
On October 4, 2023, the three-judge Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey threw out a $223.8 million verdict against Johnson and Johnson (J&J), finding that the science relied on by the plaintiffs was not sound. The 2020 verdict was originally...
Proposed Consolidation JPML Hearing on Uber Sexual Assault Litigation
Oral arguments on the petition filed with the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) to consolidate all sexual assault cases filed against Uber into MDL No 3084, In Re: Uber Technologies, Inc. Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, are scheduled to be heard...
Liability Forecasting: Vital for Mass Tort Settlements
Liability forecasting plays an important role in mass tort settlements. One effect of the four-decades-long asbestos litigation is that defendants in mass tort cases often create large settlement trusts through which they compensate current and future claimants for...
Leveraging Data to Negotiate Stronger Mass Tort Settlements
As with the other cases they litigate, plaintiffs’ attorneys will enter mass tort settlement negotiations in a case determined to secure maximum compensation for their injured clients. But mass tort cases, for a number of reasons, are more complex to litigate and...
High Reliability Organizations and Law Firms
High Reliability Organizations (“HRO”) are institutions that operate in complex, hazardous environments, making few mistakes (i.e., medical errors, air traffic errors) over long periods of time. HROs have existed since the 1980s in the aircraft carrier, air traffic...
Successful Claimant Engagement with Mass Tort Clients
We recently explained how mass tort law firms can fix their claimant engagement struggles by taking a relationship-based approach to the process. In that post, we suggested firms can avoid these struggles by regularly and proactively communicating with their clients...
Five Ways Outsourcing Case Administration & Management Services Can Save Money for Mass Tort Firms
For many mass tort firms, case administration and management can eat up significant human and financial resources because attorneys need to spend valuable time overseeing administrative tasks that take them away from the actual litigation. Client intake, document...
The Use of Analytics in Settlements of Complex Litigation
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Settlement negotiations in complex litigation take time, persistence and ultimately, leverage—the kind that comes from good data. In fact, data has significantly changed the way settlements are being negotiated in class action and...
What to Expect from Your Claims Administrator
A good third party administrator is an important player in your plan to bring a settlement to closure as quickly and efficiently as possible. I would like to pass along some observations I’ve made about the role of a third party administrator based on my thirty-five...