40 Hair Relaxer Lawsuits to be Considered for Bellwether Trials
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After months of disputes, the judge overseeing the thousands of hair relaxer lawsuits consolidated in multidistrict litigation has devised a new plan for bellwether trials.
In a court document filed on Friday, Judge Mary Rowland ordered the parties in the MDL to each identify 20 cases that could potentially serve as bellwether trials, for a total of 40. After these cases go through bellwether discovery, the list will be further narrowed down to 12 cases.
Bellwether trials serve as test cases for a larger group of lawsuits, helping to inform both sides of the litigation’s direction and its likely outcome.
“The aim of the bellwether process is to garner information useful for the parties to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments and evidence as well as to assess the risks and costs of litigation,” court documents stated.
The initial plan called for only 16 potential cases to be selected, but the court determined that number would be “far too low.” Such a small number could result in some cases being resolved or unavailable before they go to trial.
Additionally, plaintiffs and defendants had consistently disagreed on a path forward for bellwethers as the litigation stalled over recent months.
“This is not an opportunity for one side’s advocacy to win the day and put forward their strongest cases,” Judge Rowland said in the order. “Instead the parties should aim to select and try representative cases.”
The court has directed the parties to identify and exchange their selected cases by April 30. From there, the list will be narrowed down to 12 cases that will be selected to become part of the trial pool.
There are over 9,800 pending hair relaxer lawsuits as of this month, which claim that products sold by L’Oréal, Strength of Nature and other brands are tied to an increased risk of uterine cancer and other serious health issues.
A National Institute of Health study published in 2022 found that hair straightening chemicals were associated with a higher risk of uterine cancer.
Hair Relaxer MDL Stalled as Disputes Between Parties Persisted
The growing number of hair relaxer lawsuits was consolidated into an MDL in February 2023. This move places all the cases before one judge. MDLs are commonly used to help streamline the legal process when plaintiffs file many similar lawsuits.
But that process has largely stalled as plaintiffs and defendants have sparred over how best to move forward. According to court documents, the parties in the MDL were still unable to agree upon a bellwether plan in late 2023 “despite months of meeting and conferring.”
Plaintiffs and defendants went on to submit competing bellwether plans in January 2024 and continued to have unresolved disputes regarding the process throughout the rest of the year.
Even with the parties now ordered to identify 40 cases in total, not all disputes are resolved. The parties continue to disagree on the process for narrowing down potential bellwether cases from that group.
Judge Rowland has told the parties to file a joint proposal on the selection process within the next three weeks.
Editor Lindsay Donaldson contributed to this article.