Over $4 Billion Awarded in Talc Powder Lawsuit Against Johnson & Johnson

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on December 19, 2018

For the past several years, Johnson & Johnson has been locked in numerous legal battles with consumers who claim that the talcum powder sold by the company has led to numerous cases of ovarian or cervical cancer. While many trials have been decided in favor of the plaintiffs, and while numerous awards – many of them reaching into the millions – have gone to those who became the unwitting victims of Johnson & Johnson’s many – decades long attempt to hide information from consumers, it remains true that the company insists that its products are not the cause of the terminal illnesses.

During the middle part of July of this year, a jury in St. Louis, Missouri, handed the single largest verdict against the Johnson & Johnson company to a group of people diagnosed with ovarian or cervical cancer. According the jury, Johnson & Johnson is to give $550 million as a compensatory award to a group of 22 people who were united in a class-action lawsuit against the company. An additional $4.14 billion was awarded to the plaintiffs in punitive damages. In total, Johnson & Johnson is being required to pay out to the tune of $4.69 billion to the 22 people involved in the lawsuit.

The testimony heard by the jurors lasted weeks. During this time, they listened to the stories of people who suffered from cancer as a possible result of prolonged exposure to talcum powder as well as from numerous scientists who went to great lengths to explain the highly complicated and technical science around talcum powder and its links to cancer. Johnson & Johnson brought many of its own employees to the stand, and these individuals talked about the safety of Johnson & Johnson products.

As stated above, this is far from the first case to be decided against Johnson & Johnson in relation to the proliferation of cancer that is being traced back to the use of talcum powder. So far, out of all the cases that have gone to trial, only one was decided in favor of Johnson & Johnson.

The numerous instances of ovarian and cervical cancer traceable back to the use of talcum powder has not caused the Johnson & Johnson company or its CEO, Alex Gorsky, to attempt to change its product in any way. Not only has Gorsky, who also sits aboard President Trump’s manufacturing council, had Johnson & Johnson refrain from taking the hundreds of cases of cancer potentially caused by their product seriously, he has also prevented the company from adding any sort of warning label to the product.

The Johnson & Johnson company hopes to have the July ruling reversed after filing an appeal.

Sources:

• $4.69 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.