Suing Potential Plaintiff Expert Witnesses May Be Johnson & Johnson's Way Of Intimidating Scientific Experts

Filing for bankruptcy stalled talcum powder cancer trials for two years and now the company is challenging potential plaintiff expert talc asbestos studies

Thursday, September 14, 2023 - Plaintiff groups alleging that Johnson's Baby Powder caused their ovarian cancer have accused the company of using stalling tactics to delay about 40,000 talcum powder cancer lawsuits that have been filed against the company and are organized into multi-district litigation (MDL). One tactic that had the result of stemming talcum powder cancer trials that were in progress was to spin off a new company called LTL Management, place the talcum powder cancer liabilities into this shell subsidiary, and immediately file for bankruptcy protection using an arcane strategy called "The Texas Two Step." It took about a year for the courts to untangle the legal ins and outs of whether or not the bankruptcy would be allowed to proceed. A New Jersey bankruptcy judge initially granted the company's bankruptcy, however, plaintiff attorneys, legal scholars, and US legislators protested saying that such a tactic if granted would open the floodgates allowing large corporations to evade their responsibility for product safety. Eventually, a judge decided that Johnson & Johnson was not in "imminent financial distress" required by bankruptcy law, and that bankruptcy was overturned. LTL filed for bankruptcy a second time, burning another 6 months of time, and was rebuffed outright this time. Some plaintiff attorneys and Judge Michael Kaplan have gone on record as thinking that the bankruptcy courts would give the majority of about 70,000 talcum powder claimants the best shot at receiving a fair and speedy settlement. Johnson & Johnson offered $12 billion to settle all present and future talcum powder litigation.

Johnson & Johnson's latest legal maneuver is to file lawsuits against potential plaintiff expert witnesses challenging their official studies and testing that allege a link between using Johnson's Baby Powder made with talc, and Shower to Shower brand products. The first lawsuits was filed against Dr. Jacqueline Moline whose credentials include being the Chairperson or the Department of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University/Health, and the Director of Northwell Health Queens World Trade Center, and the Health Program Director of the Occupational & Environmental Medicine of Long Island, Northwell/Health, according to the testimony she delivered to The US Congress on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, before the Committee on Oversight & Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy United States House of Representatives, in a presentation titled: "Examining Carcinogens in Talc and Best Methods for Asbestos Detection" "Dr. Jacqueline Moline, who has served as a plaintiffs' expert in more than 200 cases alleging that J&J talc products caused patients to develop cancer, said in a Friday court filing in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, that the lawsuit was an effort to "intimidate" scientific experts," Reuters reported. J & J claims that Moline's findings are flawed because at least one of the 38 participants may have had previous asbestos exposure. Three other plaintiff scientific expert witnesses have had lawsuits filed against them with similar accusations.

Information provided by TalcumPowderCancerLawsuit.com, a website devoted to providing news about talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits, as well as medical research and findings.