CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Andy Birchfield delivering his closing argument
Los Angeles, CA - A closely watched trial over claims Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder caused two women’s ovarian cancer ended Friday with a $40 million verdict, and the full four-week bellwether was recorded and webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The Los Angeles County jury returned their verdict the day after hearing closing arguments in a lengthy trial that began with opening statements in mid-November. They awarded plaintiffs Monica Kent and Deborah Schultz $18 and $22 million in compensatory damages, respectively, but declined to award any punitive damages.
A J&J spokesperson told CVN after the trial the company would immediately appeal, and additional trials involving ovarian cancer claims related to products like Johnson’s Baby Powder are set for 2026, including a second bellwether trial in January before Judge Theresa Traber in the same downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
Sign up for an annual CVN video library subscription with CVN’s holiday special discount and get unlimited on-demand access to the full trial, featuring many more talc and asbestos trials in jurisdictions throughout the United States. Included among the hundreds of trials are dozens of cases involving talc-related mesothelioma and ovarian cancer claims.
The majority of talc trials to date involved plaintiffs claiming they developed mesothelioma after inhaling asbestos particles while using Baby Powder. A much smaller number of trials involved women claiming they developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson’s Baby Powder on their bodies.
Both plaintiffs in the recent trial testified they used Johnson’s Baby Powder for 40 years, and both underwent major surgeries and multiple rounds of chemotherapy to treat their cancer.
During his closing argument on behalf of the two women, plaintiff attorney Andy Birchfield of Beasley Allen Law Firm accused J&J of knowing as far back as the 1960’s that talc-based products posed a health risk but withholding that information from the public to protect sales of a popular brand.
"Absolutely they knew, they knew and they were doing everything they could to hide it, to bury the truth about the dangers," Birchfield told the jury.
The plaintiffs were also represented by a team from Robinson Calcagnie.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Allison Brown, representing J&J, argued the studies plaintiffs built their case on amount to junk science, and that no major US health organization ever documented any clear link between talc exposure and ovarian cancer.
"They don't have the evidence in this case, and they hope you don't mind," Brown said.
Brown is one of J&J’s most battle-tested trial counsel for talc cases, notching numerous defense verdicts in trials involving both mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Allison Brown delivering her closing argument
J&J’s Worldwide Vice President of Litigation, Erik Haas, referenced many of those wins in his post-trial statement, along with noting that the denial of a mistrial motion will serve as the partial basis for the company’s pending appeal.
“The Company has been successful in 16 of the 17 ovarian cancer cases it previously tried, demonstrating a strong track record that these cases have no scientific validity,” Haas said.
Following some high-profile initial plaintiff verdicts nearly a decade ago, ovarian talc trials largely remained on hold due to numerous bankruptcy filings by J&J criticized by plaintiff attorneys as attempts to stall the litigation.
In the meantime, mesothelioma talc cases resulted in a split of plaintiff and defense verdicts, with many also recorded by CVN. Absent a large-scale national settlement for mesothelioma cases, they’re expected to continue grinding through state court systems, which will now also see a likely uptick in ovarian cases.
In addition to the next ovarian bellwether trial in Los Angeles in January and other state court trials in 2026, next year will also see the first federal J&J talc trial in multi-district litigation consolidated in New Jersey.
The Los Angeles litigation is captioned Johnson & Johnson Talc Powder Cases, case number JCCP4872 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Email David Siegel at dsiegle@cvn.com
