How Far Back Do Johnsons Baby Powder Contain Asbestos

In this photo analogy, a container of Johnson's baby powder sits on a table in 2019. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hibernate caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In this photo illustration, a container of Johnson's infant powder sits on a table in 2019.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Johnson & Johnson is cartoon criticism after using a controversial bankruptcy maneuver to cake roughly 38,000 lawsuits linked to claims that its talc baby pulverisation was contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos.

The wellness products giant used a quirk of Texas land law to spin off a new company called LTL, so dumped all its asbestos-related liabilities — including the barrage of lawsuits — into the new firm.

LTL filed for defalcation last calendar week in a federal court in Charlotte, N.C., a move designed to sharply limit efforts to recover damages for those who say they were harmed by J&J's baby powder.

"Johnson & Johnson doesn't accept this liability anymore. They pushed all of it into the company they created just to file for defalcation," said Lindsey Simon, a defalcation expert at the Academy of Georgia School of Law.

As a upshot, Simon said, "consumers can't recover [damages] against a big solvent company. They take to recover against this smaller fictional company created [by J&J]."

Johnson & Johnson filed in court last week to split its Baby Powder from the remainder of the company. Why? J&J knew asbestos laced some bottles but kept it a secret for decades. Tens of thousands of women with ovarian cancer are suing, and the visitor wants to shield its avails.

— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) Oct 19, 2021

The move sparked outrage from lawmakers and consumer advocates.

"J&J knew asbestos laced some bottles simply kept information technology a secret for decades," Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., tweeted on Tuesday. "Tens of thousands of women with ovarian cancer are suing, and the company wants to shield its assets."

In 2018, separate investigations by Reuters and The New York Times revealed documents showing Johnson & Johnson fretted for decades that small amounts of asbestos lurked in its infant powder, without telling regulators.

J&J has repeatedly denied the claim. The company remains i of the wealthiest corporations in the world, with more than $25 billion in cash reserves, and has non filed for bankruptcy.

Johnson & Johnson says the bankruptcy motility is legitimate

During a telephone call with investors on Tuesday, J&J CFO Joseph Wolk defended the defalcation maneuver and once more said its talc baby powder products, discontinued final yr, were safe.

"At that place'southward an established process that allows companies facing abusive tort systems to resolve claims in an efficient and equitable way," Wolk said.

"Information technology's actually the bankruptcy courts that will ultimately decide this. It's non plaintiff attorneys. It's non Johnson & Johnson," he added.

In a separate argument, LTL said J&J had agreed to provide the new firm with $ii billion, along with other funds, for futurity payouts linked to baby powder asbestos claims.

"We are confident all parties will be treated equitably during this process," said John Kim, chief legal officer of LTL, in the statement.

Merely Andrew Birchfield, an attorney with the firm Beasley Allen who represents women who have sued J&J, said this legal maneuver could make it far more difficult for his clients to recover damages.

"Women and families would be devastated, and information technology would just be a get-out-of-jail-free card for Johnson & Johnson," Birchfield said.

J&J has had a mixed record defending itself against these talc-asbestos lawsuits.

The visitor has prevailed in many cases, merely last year an appeals court in Missouri ordered the firm to pay $two billion to women who say J&J's talc product caused their ovarian cancer.

Advocates are raising alarms about "defalcation grifters"

Critics say this is another case of a growing trend: corporations and wealthy individuals using bankruptcy to block lawsuits without actually filing for bankruptcy themselves.

Here we go once more. Another giant corporation is abusing our bankruptcy system to shield its avails and evade liability for the damage it has caused people across the country. We can't keep letting this happen and I have a bill to stop it. https://t.co/OTKdBmomSZ

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) October fifteen, 2021

"Some other giant corporation is abusing our defalcation system to shield its assets and evade liability for the harm it has caused people across the country," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted last week.

The American Association for Justice, a coalition of trial lawyers, too blasted J&J'due south maneuver and called for legislation to block this kind of legal tactic.

"There are endless Americans suffering from cancer, or mourning the death of a loved one, considering of the toxic baby pulverization that Johnson & Johnson put on the marketplace," the group said in a argument. "Their conduct and now defalcation gimmick is equally despicable as it is brazen."

In recent months, legal scholars, bipartisan members of Congress and consumer advocacy groups accept raised alarms about the use of bankruptcy courts by wealthy and powerful entities seeking to block lawsuits.

Simon, at the Academy of Georgia, published a widely read paper in the Yale Police Journal in April that described wealthy companies like Johnson & Johnson equally "bankruptcy grifters."

She argued such firms and organizations receive the benefits of Chapter 11 protection while "incurring merely a fraction of the associated burdens."

Critics also say lax defalcation laws permit companies to "venue shop," choosing to file for bankruptcy in federal jurisdictions viewed as friendly to corporations.

In this example, Johnson & Johnson is headquartered in New Jersey, but these legal maneuvers accept been executed in Due north Carolina and Texas.

Like legal strategies have been used in bankruptcy courts by members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma, besides equally by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Boy Scouts of America, which confront a barrage of sexual practice abuse-related claims.

Simon said this bankruptcy maneuver offers J&J pregnant advantages in negotiations that are likely to follow over a final settlement.

Merely she said the company may still be on the hook for sizable payouts to victims as adamant past the bankruptcy courtroom.

"[J&J is] non completely wiping their hands of the issue, and I think probably awareness of how that would be perceived is the reason why," Simon said.

Johnson & Johnson, meanwhile, has asked a federal defalcation approximate to halt progress on talc-asbestos claims while LTL's bankruptcy filing is under review.

Gauge Craig Whitley volition agree a hearing on that request on Friday in Charlotte.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/21/1047828535/baby-powder-cancer-johnson-johnson-bankruptcy

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