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...
Verus, LLC Acquires MFR Claims Processing Inc.
Verus is pleased to announce that we have completed the acquisition of MFR Claims Processing, Inc., a PA-based asbestos claims management company. MFR Claims Processing, Inc. started operations in February 2004 as the claims handling entity for the Shook &...
Four Factors Plaintiffs Should Consider When Evaluating Loss Portfolio Transfers in Mass Tort Cases
Loss portfolio transfers are reinsurance contracts where a self-insured organization or an insurer typically cedes legacy liabilities to a reinsurer. The reinsurer assumes and accepts the ceding entity’s current and future claim liabilities, including the loss...
$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...
Four Ways the Texas Two-Step Changes How Plaintiffs Litigate Mass Torts
By enabling defendants to shield themselves from mass tort liability, the “Texas Two-Step” is a new obstacle for plaintiffs pursuing mass tort cases against manufacturers of dangerous products. For the uninitiated, the Texas Two-Step is a bankruptcy process in which a...