Johnson & Johnson files third bankruptcy case seeking to end talc lawsuits

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Johnson & Johnson filed an unprecedented third chapter 11 case seeking to end the mass lawsuits linking its cosmetic talc products to cancer, this time with the backing of tens of thousands of personal-injury plaintiffs for a roughly $8 billion compensation plan.

The healthcare-products company is taking another shot at ending the long-running talc lawsuits in bankruptcy after two failed attempts. The latest chapter 11 filing will once again test if financially healthy businesses such as J&J can use the chapter 11 process to solve legal problems stemming from allegedly dangerous or defective products.

J&J filed its first chapter 11 case for its talc liabilities in 2021 in Charlotte, N.C., its second last year in Trenton, N.J., and its third in Houston. Friday’s filing automatically halts the more than 62,000 talc lawsuits pending in courts around the country and opens a path for J&J to settle those claims collectively in a single forum.

The bankruptcy follows a monthslong effort by J&J to build support among injury plaintiffs for a roughly $8 billion compensation plan for claims that its iconic baby powder contained cancer-causing asbestos. The company has denied that its talc products are unsafe and blamed legal advertising and unscrupulous trial lawyers for fueling talc litigation.

If the company’s plan is approved in bankruptcy court, it would resolve all current and future lawsuits linking the talc products to ovarian and other gynecological cancers, a final resolution J&J can’t get anywhere else but in bankruptcy. Even claimants who voted down the offer from J&J would be bound by its terms, and the company would eliminate the risk of large jury-trial verdicts like the $2.1 billion