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Asbestos
Hedge-fund money complicates J&J's massive settlement for talc claims
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson’s lawyers think they’ve identified the reason the company is having such a hard time settling thousands of lawsuits claiming its talcum powder causes cancer, even though it’s won the vast majority of the cases that have gone to trial.
Asbestos
It's lawyer vs. lawyer in J&J's $9 billion talc bankruptcy plan
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers will face off at a January hearing in Houston to decide whether Johnson & Johnson can move ahead with a $9 billion plan to settle thousands of talc lawsuits in bankruptcy court, with each side accusing the other of manufacturing votes on the plan and possibly acting on the orders of outside investors with a stake in the outcome.
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Asbestos
Veil lifted, slightly, on asbestos money flowing through South Carolina court
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The court-appointed receiver for a long-defunct insulation company in South Carolina has paid more than $27 million to settle asbestos cases, according to a new filing that provides limited financial information about one of the secretive funds the receiver uses to hold proceeds of settlements with insurance companies.
Asbestos
Dallas asbestos firm drives defense nuts with stacks of books, microscopes and crying at trial
Before a Connecticut trial this year over whether talcum powder caused a man’s abdominal cancer, lawyers for Johnson & Johnson pleaded with a judge to prevent plaintiff lawyers at Dean Omar Branham Stanley from engaging in what they called “repeated and pervasive misconduct.”
Asbestos
Insurers funding shadowy S.C. asbestos accounts want secrecy to continue
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Nothing to see here, folks. That was the position of lawyers who appeared at an unusual hearing last week called by South Carolina Judge Jean H. Toal to explain how the receivership process in her asbestos court works, and why details about it should remain secret.
Asbestos
Secrecy shrouds asbestos money in South Carolina, but insurer makes play for records
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A South Carolina personal-injury lawyer with a court-ordered commission to keep a third of whatever he recovers has placed tens of millions of dollars in Delaware partnerships that he controls, out of sight of the public and even the judge who allowed them to be established.
Asbestos
'Slammed the door in my face': Key cog in South Carolina's asbestos court not at U.K. showdown
A London judge hearing a U.K. company’s challenge to receivership orders handed down by his judicial counterpart in South Carolina called the procedure “a bit sort of odd,” given the U.K. company has never done business in South Carolina and has no assets there.
Asbestos
Expert pushing talc-causes-cancer theory must ID patients in her disputed study
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A New York appeals court ordered an expert to turn over the names of patients she cited in a paper that provided crucial support to disputed claims talcum powder can cause cancer.
Asbestos
Let's talc about the personal-injury lawyers controlling South Carolina's legislature
South Carolina’s asbestos-litigation industry is aiming at Johnson & Johnson, adding supposedly deadly talcum powder to the long list of products plaintiffs claim made them sick. And if history is any guide, J&J is in for a rough time in the Palmetto State.
Asbestos
J&J asks for $63M jury verdict in S.C. talc case to be set aside, or a new trial
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) – Johnson & Johnson is seeking judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial outright, in the case of a man who won a $63 million verdict against it for talc-related asbestos exposure claims – claims which the company says were not properly substantiated at trial and erroneously allowed to proceed.
Asbestos
Foreign mining company caught in South Carolina's asbestos machine must go to trial in February
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The judge in charge of South Carolina’s swelling asbestos docket agreed to delay a trial against Anglo American and its De Beers diamond unit over whether they participated in a decades-long scheme to hide assets from U.S. plaintiffs but rejected Anglo American’s central argument, which is that the U.K. mining giants shouldn’t be in her courtroom at in the first place.
Asbestos
J&J's talc plan gains supporter, which gets him sued by Beasley Allen
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – After Johnson & Johnson made an offer to increase its settlement proposal by $1 billion to plaintiffs claiming its cosmetic talcum powder gave them cancer, the offer garnered the support of one member of plaintiff counsel who had previously rejected such proposals.
Asbestos
Zombies are on the loose in a Carolina courtroom. Can anyone stop them?
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - An all-powerful judge raises the dead. A lawyer herds them into court. Their prey: Insurance companies. It sounds like the worst horror movie ever made, but it would actually be a documentary.
Asbestos
After $63M loss, Johnson & Johnson preps for another trial in unfriendly South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson is scheduled to begin trial next month in a South Carolina court where it lost a $63 million verdict last month and the presiding judge has a reputation for pro-plaintiff rulings and stiff sanctions against companies that dare to oppose her.
Asbestos
J&J's $9 billion talc bankruptcy: Good for plaintiffs, if not their lawyers
Johnson & Johnson has proposed, for the third time, a simple deal for plaintiffs claiming its cosmetic talcum powder gave them cancer: File a claim in bankruptcy court, and get a check for up to $200,000.
Asbestos
Jury of one: Asbestos judge fattens verdicts when she wants
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A South Carolina judge criticized as overly generous to plaintiffs in asbestos cases is making defendants pay whatever she feels, despite what juries and federal courts say, and was just given approval to do so by the state Supreme Court.
Asbestos
Winner of $63M talc verdict worked in asbestos-filled building but jurors never knew
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A man who won a $63 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson over what he claims was asbestos-contaminated talcum powder worked in a building later condemned for being “full of asbestos” and told his doctor about his suspected exposure to the deadly fibers.
Asbestos
$400K penalty against asbestos lawyers affirmed; Another appeal on the horizon
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - Asbestos lawyers found in contempt for fighting an order requiring them to turn over their clients' exposure histories have lost their latest legal battle.
Asbestos
California extends 'take-home' asbestos liability to case of brother who lived elsewhere
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - A California Supreme Court decision limiting “take-home” asbestos liability to people who live in the same house doesn’t preclude a man from suing over claims he was exposed to asbestos when visiting at his brother’s house.
Asbestos
Asbestos lawyers lose effort to change Vermont rule
MONTPELIER, Vt. (Legal Newsline) - The Vermont Supreme Court won't change the window for asbestos claimants to sue, rejecting a call from a Dallas plaintiffs firm to do so.