Johnson & Johnson Talc Lawsuit: Verdicts and Failed Bankruptcy Bids

The Johnson & Johnson talc lawsuit is a mass tort involving more than 90,000 claims from people who say the company’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products were contaminated with asbestos and caused ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. After three failed attempts to push the cases into bankruptcy, J&J is now defending them one by one in state and federal courtrooms, where juries have handed down verdicts running into the billions.

What Plaintiffs Say Happened

Johnson & Johnson has sold Baby Powder since 1894. Documents pulled into the litigation show that consulting labs identified fibrous tremolite, a form of asbestos, in talc from J&J’s Italian supplier as early as 1957 and 1958.¹ Asbestos was detected at Vermont mines owned by a J&J subsidiary in 1967, and between 1972 and 1975, at least three separate labs found asbestos in J&J baby powder samples, with one describing the level as “rather high.”²

Plaintiffs also point to what they call concealment. In 1976, while the FDA was weighing asbestos limits for cosmetic talc, J&J told the agency its products were asbestos-free without disclosing the internal 1972–1975 tests that had found contamination. A New Jersey judge later called that practice of sharing favorable results and withholding unfavorable ones “misrepresentation by omission.”³

J&J denies all of it. The company says its talc products are safe and asbestos-free, characterizes the plaintiffs’ evidence as “junk science,” argues that fibers historically identified as tremolite were not the dangerous “asbestiform” variety, and points to what it describes as thousands of independent tests confirming the safety of its products.³ J&J’s legal chief, Erik Haas, has said many jury verdicts against the company are driven by junk science and has pointed to appellate reductions of several large awards.⁴

J&J discontinued talc-based Baby Powder in the United States and Canada in 2020, citing declining demand and what it called “misinformation” about the product’s safety.⁵ In 2023, the company pulled the talc product globally and switched its baby powder line to a cornstarch-based formula.⁶

Two Kinds of Talc Cases

The claims fall into two groups, and the group a case belongs to shapes how it moves through the system.

Ovarian Cancer Cases

Most claims come from women who used talc-based powder for feminine hygiene over long periods and later developed ovarian cancer. More than 60,000 of these cases remain active, most consolidated in a federal multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, designated MDL No. 2738 and overseen by Judge Michael A. Shipp.⁷⁸ A January 2026 ruling confirmed that expert testimony linking genital talc use to ovarian cancer is admissible at trial, a procedural win for plaintiffs.² After the bankruptcy strategy collapsed, a federal court ordered these cases into court-supervised mediation, with individual trials continuing alongside it.⁹

Mesothelioma Cases

A smaller group of plaintiffs were diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the lung or abdominal lining strongly tied to asbestos exposure. They include household users who inhaled powder dust and workers with occupational exposure. J&J says it has settled roughly 95% of its mesothelioma cases,¹⁰ but the cases that do go to trial have produced some of the litigation’s largest verdicts. These claims were never funneled into the bankruptcy process and have continued reaching juries through 2025 and 2026.⁹

Why the Cases Are Back in Regular Court

Between 2021 and 2025, J&J tried three times to move talc claims into bankruptcy court through a maneuver known as the “Texas Two-Step.” The plan each time was to create a subsidiary, load it with the talc liabilities, and have that subsidiary file for Chapter 11. That would freeze the lawsuits while J&J negotiated a global settlement.

The first attempt came in October 2021. J&J created LTL Management LLC, which took on all cosmetic talc liabilities and filed for bankruptcy in the Western District of North Carolina, with J&J pledging $2 billion to fund a resolution.¹¹ In January 2023, the Third Circuit dismissed the petition, ruling that LTL had been created solely to access bankruptcy protection despite facing no actual financial distress. “Only a putative debtor in financial distress can” access the Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbor, the court wrote. “LTL was not.”¹²

A second LTL filing was rejected in July 2023 on the same grounds.¹ The third try used a new subsidiary, Red River Talc LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas in September 2024 with an $8 billion to $9 billion settlement proposal.¹³ On March 31, 2025, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez denied confirmation of the plan and the case was dismissed. J&J said it would not appeal and would return to the tort system, and it reversed roughly $7 billion it had reserved for a bankruptcy resolution.¹⁴

The Biggest Jury Verdicts

Individual talc trials have produced some of the largest personal injury awards in U.S. history. The most significant so far:

$1.56 billion in December 2025 in Baltimore, awarded to Cherie Craft, a 54-year-old mother of five who used Baby Powder daily from 1971 until she was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in January 2024. The award included $59.84 million in compensatory damages, $1 billion in punitive damages against J&J, and $500 million against subsidiary Pecos River Talc. It is the largest individual talc verdict on record. J&J called the verdict “egregious and patently unconstitutional” and said it would appeal immediately.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷
$4.69 billion in July 2018 in St. Louis, awarded to 22 women who alleged talc caused their ovarian cancer. That verdict was later reduced to approximately $2.1 billion on appeal.⁴
$966 million in October 2025 in Los Angeles, awarded to the family of Mae K. Moore, who died of mesothelioma in 2021. In March 2026, Judge Ruth Kwan struck the $950 million in punitive damages, finding that plaintiffs’ counsel had not sufficiently proved J&J acted with malice. The $16 million compensatory award stands, and the plaintiffs’ attorney said he intends to appeal.¹⁸
$325 million in May 2019 in New York, awarded to Donna Olson in a mesothelioma case, including $300 million in punitive damages.¹⁹
$260 million in June 2024 in Portland, awarded to Kyung Lee for mesothelioma.¹⁹
$65.5 million in December 2025 in Minnesota, awarded to Anna Jean Houghton Carley, a 37-year-old with cancer in the lining of her lungs.⁴

Not every trial has ended in a plaintiff win, and appellate courts have cut several of the biggest awards. J&J says it has prevailed in 16 of 17 ovarian cancer cases tried over the past 11 years.¹⁴

Where the Litigation Stands in 2026

As of mid-2026, more than 67,000 cases remain consolidated in the federal MDL in New Jersey,⁸ with additional cases moving through state courts around the country, including new filings in Dallas by the Nachawati Law Group.²⁰ A status conference was scheduled for June 2026 to address expert witness issues ahead of upcoming trials.

J&J has taken an aggressive posture back in the tort system, saying it will seek to exclude plaintiffs’ expert witnesses and to disqualify certain plaintiffs’ counsel for alleged ethical breaches.¹⁴ The company continues to say its talc products never contained asbestos and that the claims are “meritless.” Court-supervised mediation of ovarian cancer claims continues in parallel with trials, and no global settlement has been announced.

A Note on UK Claims and Kenvue

If you used J&J talc products outside the United States or Canada, the U.S. MDL is not where your claim would sit. In the UK, more than 3,000 people have filed a joint claim at the High Court’s Manchester Circuit Commercial Court alleging ovarian cancer, mesothelioma, and other diseases from talcum powder sold between 1965 and 2023. The claim is estimated at more than £1 billion (roughly $1.34 billion) and names both J&J and Kenvue Ltd as defendants.²¹ Kenvue separated from J&J in August 2023 as an independent consumer health company and, under the terms of the split, retains responsibility for talc-related litigation outside the U.S. and Canada.²² The UK claim will be decided by a judge, not a jury.

1
Pharmaceutical Processing World. Timeline: Navigating Johnson & Johnson’s Talc Lawsuits
2
Sokolove Law. Johnson & Johnson Talc Litigation
3
Reuters. Johnson & Johnson Knew for Decades That Asbestos Lurked in Its Baby Powder
4
Fierce Pharma. Baltimore Jury Orders J&J to Pay $1.5B, Largest Ever Award to Talc Plaintiff
5
Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health Announces Discontinuation of Talc-Based Johnson’s Baby Powder in U.S. and Canada
6
CNBC. J&J to Stop Selling Talc-Based Baby Powder Globally in 2023
7
U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey. Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Litigation
8
Motley Rice. Talcum Powder Lawsuit
9
HMF Law. Talc Mesothelioma vs. Ovarian Cancer: Two Tracks
10
Asbestos.com. Johnson & Johnson
11
Lacy Katzen. Talcum Powder Litigation Update: U.S. Court Rejects Johnson & Johnson’s Bankruptcy Filing Strategy
12
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In re: LTL Management, LLC
13
BK Alerts. Bankruptcy Case: Red River Talc LLC
14
Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson to Return to Tort System to Defeat Meritless Talc Claims
15
Reuters. J&J Vows Appeal After U.S. Jury Hits It With Record $1.5 Billion Talc Cancer Award
16
Mesothelioma.net. Baltimore Woman Awarded $1.5 Billion Mesothelioma Award in J&J Talc Case
17
Texas Lawbook. Dallas-Based Dobs Gets $1.5B Verdict in Latest Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Jury Trial
18
Law.com. LA Judge Tosses $950M in Punitive Damages in Talc Verdict
19
Brayton Law. Verdicts That Shook Johnson & Johnson
20
Texas Lawyer. Johnson & Johnson Slapped With Three New Talcum Powder Lawsuits in Dallas
21
CBS News. Johnson & Johnson UK Claim: Asbestos Talcum Powder Cancer
22
Chemistry World. J&J Now Faces Talc Cancer Claims in the UK