Talcum Powder Mass Tort Litigation
If you are dealing with a mass tort, you are dealing with many people who are injured by oftentimes one common defendant, one common product, or one common thing.
Mass tort litigation helps consolidate some of the inconsistencies that could result from filing similar lawsuits scattered across the country. The concept of mass tort litigation developed so that plaintiffs could file their individual lawsuits against a company or against a manufacturer for injuries that they sustained in one common venue.
The company then is one common defendant, but there are many individual plaintiffs who are asserting claims for injuries against the company.
Due to the complexities of mass tort litigation, if you have suffered injuries from talcum powder, it is crucial to contact an experienced talcum powder lawyer who will help you navigate the complicated legal process, help prepare you for what to expect, and who will fight for you to receive the compensation you deserve.
Handling Claims
Mass tort claims are handled oftentimes through a multidistrict litigation, or an MDL. An MDL has not been formed in the talcum powder lawsuits yet, however, an MDL is a really efficient way to handle mass torts or many cases that have been filed. It helps streamline some of the pre-trial rulings and with the discovery process. It allows plaintiffs to make a general causation case, meaning they make the case of how talcum powder can cause ovarian cancer generally. MDL are different from civil action lawsuits and knowing the differences between the two may be valuable for someone interested in pursuing a claim.
That argument is going to apply to every single woman who has a lawsuit filed and that way each case does not have to go back and recreate the wheel and reestablish that general causation. This is really a headway for each additional case to save expenses, to save costs, and to have some continuity from the consistency of the rulings and the decisions on these matters.
In North Carolina specifically, product liability laws are not as favorable to mass tort litigation as some other states, so if the woman was living or passed away in North Carolina, an attorney can file her claim in federal court in another state. There are a lot of different ways that they can figure out where the best place to file that case would be, and where the appropriate venue would be. Sometimes, it depends on where the defendant’s corporate headquarters are. For example, there are cases that have been filed in the ovarian cancer talcum powder litigation in both St. Louis and New Jersey, which is where Johnson & Johnson is headquartered.
A claim where the injury occurred in North Carolina will probably not be filed in North Carolina. It will be filed in one of these other common venues with other talcum powder cases.
Complexities
In mass tort litigation, you are dealing with multi-billion dollar corporations that have unlimited resources. An attorney is oftentimes in a venue that is outside of the state where they normally practice, so there are some nuanced rules and there are different procedural rules and mechanisms that have to be followed. Ultimately, they really have to make sure that they are aware of what is going on in the litigation.
For example, if you are injured in a car accident and you file your lawsuit in North Carolina, your case will proceed through discovery. You will have your deposition taken. You will then submit written questions and answers to the defendant, they will do the same, and then you may go before a judge.
In the mass tort context, all of that is streamlined, so oftentimes, there will be a short-form complaint that is developed so that the allegations are similar. Each case can follow that same format. Then, instead of all of that extensive discovery in the mass tort cases, a plaintiff could submit a plaintiff fact sheet that really speaks to the heart of what discovery is getting at as far as medical history and use of the product.
Those are some nuances that are different from just any personal injury case being pursued in your state and you want to be well equipped to handle the things that would accompany a mass tort case.
