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Asbestos
Expert's 'widespread deception' fueled talc/asbestos lawsuits, J&J says
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - A bankrupt unit of Johnson & Johnson has sued one of the most prominent plaintiff experts in talc litigation, accusing her of knowingly promoting the “false narrative” that cosmetic talc causes cancer.
Asbestos
Settlement ends Honeywell's 'ill-fated' funding of asbestos trust; Company claimed lawyers were bleeding it dry
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - Likening the two sides to exhausted boxers or a quarreling couple, a bankruptcy judge approved a settlement between Honeywell and trustees overseeing a fund for paying asbestos claimants under which Honeywell will end its involvement for a lump-sum payment of $1.3 billion.
Asbestos
Key talc/cancer study cited by plaintiffs hid evidence of other exposure, lawyers say
GREENSBORO, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - A scientific study that concluded talcum powder causes cancer -- and helped turn talc lawsuits into a multibillion-dollar enterprise -- is potentially misleading, a federal judge has concluded, allowing defense attorneys to mount more probing cross-examinations of the study’s author.
Asbestos
Asbestos lawyers succeed in keeping info from public
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - The public won't have access to information from a case that accuses an asbestos bankruptcy trust from giving out money to lawyers without double-checking their claims.
Asbestos
Attorney panel scrutinizes proposed legislation that would ban divisional merger bankruptcies
While legislation is pending in Congress that would require the dismissal of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in which the debtor has created a divisional merger, federal appeals court judges in Philadelphia heard arguments this week about whether Johnson & Johnson’s bankruptcy case was filed in good faith.
Asbestos
Bestwall gets access to key info as it targets asbestos lawyers
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) – Bestwall recently scored a major victory in its effort to show asbestos lawyers are manipulating their clients’ claims in order to score bigger paydays than they are entitled to.
Asbestos
Asbestos plaintiff corrects memory after 17 years, saving lawsuit
NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - A onetime dockworker who couldn’t recall asbestos exposure in 2004 but recovered the memory by the time he was deposed again in 2021 salvaged a lawsuit over the death of his wife, who allegedly succumbed to lung cancer caused by asbestos dust the worker brought home on his clothes.
Asbestos
Tile salesman's asbestos case fails on lack of evidence
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A lawsuit over a man who blamed his fatal lung cancer on vinyl floor tile failed to prove he could have inhaled enough of the dangerous fibers to cause his disease, a New York appeals court ruled, continuing a line of victories for defendants in cases in which plaintiff experts fail to specify a lethal exposure to asbestos.
Asbestos
Lack of evidence dooms once-$325 million verdict in NYCAL talc/asbestos case
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A New York appeals court reversed a $325 million jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson, ruling that even if plaintiff Donna Olson used talcum powder containing asbestos – a claim J&J denies – her expert witnesses failed to prove she was exposed to enough fibers to cause mesothelioma.
Asbestos
Court rejects 'bad-faith' effort to delay talc company's bankruptcy
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - A federal appeals court criticized as a “bad-faith tactic” a motion by insurance companies to disqualify a lawyer that was appointed by a judge to represent future asbestos claimants in the bankruptcy of Imerys Talc America.
Asbestos
Court overturns $3 million punitive damages award in case of Old Spice talcum powder
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A California appeals court reversed a $3 million punitive-damages award against a former supplier of cosmetic talc, ruling there wasn’t evidence the company’s executives knew their product contained dangerous amounts of asbestos when the plaintiff claimed his exposure.
Asbestos
Companies that didn't make asbestos-containing insulation can still be liable, court rules
DES MOINES, Iowa (Legal Newsline) – Asbestos lawyers in Iowa scored a big win June 17 when the state Supreme Court rejected a lower court’s reading of 2017 tort reform legislation.
Asbestos
Honeywell says audit didn't scratch surface of asbestos lawyers' shenanigans
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – Honeywell International calls claims submitted by asbestos lawyers “copy-and-paste” allegations that they have had to spend $128 million to resolve.
Asbestos
Names of asbestos claimants to be redacted - for now - in upcoming trial over trust money
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – The names of asbestos claimants will be redacted when a trial gets started in Pennsylvania federal court that will determine if millions of dollars have been rightfully handed out.
Asbestos
Judge asked not to hide names of clients as asbestos lawyers' business practices probed
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – A bankruptcy judge expressed sympathy for insurance companies that say the names of asbestos claimants should be made public in an upcoming trial over whether a bankruptcy trust funded by Honeywell is paying out on fraudulent and inconsistent injury claims.
Asbestos
Bankruptcy judge sanctions asbestos firms $100 per day for evading questionnaires
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) – Bankruptcy Judge Laura Beyer ordered 330 clients of asbestos firm Shrader and Associates to pay $100 a day starting May 9, as a sanction for failure to answer questionnaires of Georgia Pacific entity Bestwall.
Asbestos
Asbestos lawyers will be named as trial settles allegations of 'rampant fraud'
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – Asbestos lawyers have dropped their request to keep firm names out of evidence in a trial that will determine whether they’ve been allowed to ransack a bankruptcy trust set up to compensate victims.
Asbestos
Asbestos lawyers fight spotlight as trial over management of victims fund nears
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – Asbestos lawyers have public relations concerns as a trial approaches in Pennsylvania that will determine if they are using an asbestos victims fund like a bottomless ATM.
Asbestos
Asbestos plaintiff who named 800 John Does gets to add brake company
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - A woman who waited to name an air-brake manufacturer in an asbestos lawsuit until after her husband’s death got a second chance to sue the company after a California appeals court ruled her case was improperly dismissed for failure to name the defendant in time.
Asbestos
New York's high court tosses once-huge talc verdict, citing lack of evidence
ALBANY, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - New York’s highest court threw out a $16.5 million jury verdict against a talc manufacturer, saying plaintiff experts failed to prove a woman’s cancer death was due to inhaling asbestos fibers in the talcum powder she claimed to have used daily for more than 20 years.