Howard Erichson was quoted in a Law360 article about the latest Johnson and Johnson lawsuit, which claims the company’s talc products might be contaminated with asbestos.
Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP this month knocked out claims that a woman’s alleged exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder contributed to her mesothelioma, with firm attorneys taking a more aggressive stance than other counsel in prior cases by blasting the matter as a “sham” created by her lawyers.
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That plaintiffs have won some talc verdicts puts pressure on J&J “to think about settling at some point, but the fact that juries can deliver defense verdicts puts pressure on plaintiffs, because it means that … if the next plaintiff chooses to go to trial, the plaintiff is risking getting zero,” according to Howard M. Erichson, a professor at Fordham University School of Law.“Everyone knows in theory that there’s risk on both sides, but sometimes it takes a defense verdict to … hammer home the message … that there’s risk for plaintiffs in these cases and not only for defendants,” Erichson said.