Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Lawsuit: Verdicts and 2026 Trials

The Johnson & Johnson talcum powder lawsuit is now moving case by case through the courts. After three failed attempts to resolve more than 67,000 talc claims through bankruptcy, J&J announced in early 2025 that it would defend the cases individually, and juries in late 2025 and early 2026 have returned awards ranging from tens of millions of dollars to $1.56 billion. The first federal bellwether trial is expected in the second half of 2026, and new claims are still being filed.

What the Lawsuits Claim

Plaintiffs allege that J&J’s talc-based products, particularly Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower, were contaminated with asbestos and that regular use caused ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. Talc and asbestos occur together in the earth, and plaintiffs point to decades of testing showing that J&J’s raw talc and finished products sometimes tested positive for asbestos, including chrysotile, tremolite, and actinolite.¹ A review of more than 1,000 tests spanning 1948 to 2017 found that roughly two-thirds detected asbestos in talc samples.²

The lawsuits also claim J&J knew about the contamination for decades and hid it. Internal documents introduced in court proceedings show that between 1972 and 1975, J&J did not disclose at least three tests that found asbestos in its talc to the FDA, even while assuring the agency that no asbestos had been detected. A New Jersey Superior Court judge in 2018 called that practice “a form of a misrepresentation by omission.”¹

J&J denies the allegations. The company says its talc is safe and asbestos-free, citing thousands of independent tests and large epidemiological studies including the Nurses’ Health Study and the Women’s Health Initiative Study, which it says showed no increased ovarian cancer risk among talc users. It has described the litigation as based on “junk science.”³ J&J pulled talc-based Baby Powder from the U.S. and Canada in 2020 and discontinued it worldwide in 2023, replacing it with a cornstarch formula while continuing to defend the safety of the original product.⁴

Why Cases Are Going to Trial Instead of Settling

J&J tried three times to route the litigation into bankruptcy through a corporate maneuver known as the Texas two-step: create a new subsidiary, load it with all the talc liabilities, and file that shell in Chapter 11 so claims are channeled into a trust while J&J’s operating business stays out of court. Each attempt failed.

The first filing, by a subsidiary called LTL Management in October 2021, was dismissed by the Third Circuit in January 2023 because LTL was not in financial distress. A funding agreement gave LTL access to as much as $61.5 billion from J&J, dwarfing the roughly $4.5 billion the company had spent on talc litigation over the previous five years.⁵ A second LTL filing was dismissed in July 2023 and affirmed on appeal in July 2024.⁶

The third attempt used a new subsidiary, Red River Talc LLC, which filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 in Texas in September 2024 proposing a settlement trust of roughly $8 billion (present value) paid over 25 years. J&J said 83% of current claimants had voted in favor, above the 75% threshold required by the Bankruptcy Code.⁷ On March 31, 2025, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez denied confirmation and dismissed the case. The court found that law firms had cast ballots without proper client authorization and that voting windows were too short to certify the 75% threshold had actually been met. Citing the Supreme Court’s June 2024 decision in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., the court also ruled that the plan’s proposed release of more than 700 non-debtor entities from liability was not permitted under the Bankruptcy Code.⁸ The court also found bad faith, pointing to Red River’s lack of real business operations.⁶

J&J declined to appeal and said it would defend the cases in the traditional court system.⁹ That is why there is no global settlement in place, and why individual jury verdicts, rather than a trust, now drive the litigation.

Recent Verdicts

Trial results have been mixed but the plaintiff wins have been large. J&J’s litigation chief Erik Haas has said the company prevailed in 16 of 17 ovarian cancer trials leading up to December 2025.¹⁰ Mesothelioma cases have produced a wider mix of outcomes with far larger damage awards.

The landmark verdict remains Ingham, in which a St. Louis jury in July 2018 ordered J&J to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women who alleged the company’s talc products caused their ovarian cancer. The Missouri Court of Appeals reduced the judgment to roughly $2.12 billion in June 2020, and the Missouri Supreme Court declined further review in November 2020.¹¹¹²

More recent jury awards include:

$1.56 billion (December 2025, Baltimore): a jury found J&J, two subsidiaries, and Kenvue liable for failing to warn plaintiff Cherie Craft about asbestos in talc-based baby powder, splitting the award between $59.84 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 billion in punitive damages. J&J called the verdict “egregious and patently unconstitutional” and vowed to appeal.¹³
$966 million reduced to $16 million (October 2025, Los Angeles): a Los Angeles jury awarded $16 million in compensatory and $950 million in punitive damages in a mesothelioma case brought on behalf of the estate of Mae Moore. In March 2026, Judge Ruth Kwan vacated the punitive portion, ruling plaintiffs had not proved malice by clear and convincing evidence. The plaintiff’s attorney has said he will appeal.¹⁴
$260 million (June 2024, Oregon): a Multnomah County jury awarded $60 million in compensatory and $200 million in punitive damages in the mesothelioma case of Kyung Lee. The trial judge denied J&J’s motion to reduce or void the verdict.¹⁵
$65.5 million (December 2025, Minnesota) in a talc-related cancer case.¹⁶
$42.68 million (July 2025, Massachusetts): a jury awarded Paul Lovell damages in a mesothelioma case, including $24 million for pain and suffering and $16 million for loss of consortium.¹⁶
$40 million (December 2025, Los Angeles): a bellwether trial resulted in compensatory awards of $18 million and $22 million to two ovarian cancer plaintiffs, with no punitive damages.¹⁰
$20 million (October 2025, Fort Lauderdale): a jury awarded the family of a physician who died of mesothelioma.⁹

J&J is appealing most of the plaintiff verdicts, and several have already been reduced or partially vacated on post-trial review.

The Federal MDL and 2026 Trial Schedule

Most federal talc lawsuits are consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2738) in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, overseen by Judge Michael A. Shipp. As of May 2026, there are 67,623 plaintiffs in the MDL,¹⁷ with thousands more cases pending in state courts.¹⁸

The first federal bellwether trial, Carter Judkins v. Johnson & Johnson, is expected in the second half of 2026, with Judge Shipp expected to set a specific date in the coming months.¹⁹ In January 2026, retired Judge Freda Wolfson issued a 658-page ruling clearing plaintiffs’ experts to testify that J&J’s talc products are linked to ovarian cancer. That recommendation awaits formal acceptance by Judge Shipp.²⁰

State courts are also active. Ovarian cancer trials began in Philadelphia and Los Angeles in January 2026,²⁰ and a February 2026 Philadelphia jury awarded $250,000 to the family of a deceased talc user in that city’s first talc trial in five years.¹⁸

Kenvue as a Co-Defendant

J&J spun off its consumer health division into a separate publicly traded company, Kenvue Inc., in 2023. The restructuring has not shielded Kenvue from talc claims. In the December 2025 Baltimore verdict, the jury found Kenvue jointly liable alongside J&J.¹³ Judge Shipp also rejected J&J’s attempt to block plaintiffs from adding Kenvue as a defendant in the federal MDL, finding plaintiffs had plausibly alleged Kenvue acquired the assets, continued the operations, and functioned as a “new hat” for J&J’s former consumer unit.¹⁸

How Much a Claim May Be Worth

There is no global settlement, and J&J’s bankruptcy proposals of $6.5 billion to $8.9 billion were all rejected. Some analysts have estimated total liability could reach $11 billion.⁹

Legal industry estimates place average individual settlements in the range of $100,000 to $1 million, with the amount depending on the type of cancer, disease severity, the plaintiff’s age, medical expenses, and whether the claim involves a wrongful death.²¹ Mesothelioma claims generally produce higher awards than ovarian cancer claims; according to Mealey’s Asbestos Litigation Report, the average mesothelioma settlement runs from $1 million to $1.4 million.²² Jury verdicts in individual trials have run well above those ranges but are frequently reduced on appeal.

Who Can File and by When

People diagnosed with ovarian cancer or mesothelioma after regular use of, or occupational exposure to, talc-based products may be eligible to file a claim. Surviving family members can bring wrongful death claims on behalf of a deceased loved one.¹⁹

There is no single nationwide deadline. Statutes of limitations vary by state and typically run one to six years for personal injury claims and two to three years for wrongful death, often measured from the date the connection between talc use and the diagnosis was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.¹⁹ Because the discovery rule and state-specific deadlines can be strict, the window for filing turns on where you live and when you learned of the possible link. Most new federal cases are being filed directly into the MDL in New Jersey.

1
Reuters. Johnson & Johnson Knew for Decades That Asbestos Lurked in Its Baby Powder
2
PMC. Asbestos in Commercial Cosmetic Talcum Powder as a Cause of Mesothelioma
3
Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson Responds to Recent News Coverage on Talc
4
Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health to Transition Global Baby Powder Portfolio to Cornstarch
5
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In Re LTL Management LLC, No. 22-2003
6
BaileyGlasser. In Re Red River Talc LLC, Memorandum Decision and Order
7
Johnson & Johnson Investor Relations. Johnson & Johnson Announces Red River Talc LLC Voluntary Prepackaged Chapter 11 Filing
8
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Drugwatch. Talcum Powder Settlements
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CVN Blog. Bellwether J&J Talc Trial Ends With $40M Verdict
11
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12
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Johnson & Johnson v. Ingham
13
Reuters. J&J Vows Appeal After US Jury Hits It With Record $1.5 Billion Talc Cancer Award
14
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15
Asbestos.com. Judge Declines to Reduce Damages Against J&J
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Motley Rice. Talcum Powder Lawsuit
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Drugwatch. Talcum Powder Lawsuits
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Rheingold Law. Johnson & Johnson Talc Ovarian Cancer Lawsuits to Proceed in Federal MDL Litigation
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Lawfirm.com. Talcum Powder Settlements