Paraquat Lawsuit Update: MDL, Settlement, and Daubert Ruling

The paraquat lawsuit is stalled between a proposed settlement and a courtroom, with more than 6,650 federal cases pending in MDL No. 3004 in the Southern District of Illinois and a settlement framework announced in April 2025 that still has not been finalized as of June 2026.¹² Federal pretrial proceedings have been stayed since September 2025, a high share of eligible plaintiffs have declined the settlement offers, and Syngenta and Chevron have settled every case that has come close to a jury, most recently a Philadelphia bellwether on the eve of trial in January 2026.

Where the Federal MDL Stands

The Paraquat Products Liability Litigation is consolidated as MDL No. 3004 before Chief Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel in the Southern District of Illinois. Plaintiffs allege they developed Parkinson’s disease from exposure to paraquat and that Syngenta Crop Protection and Chevron U.S.A. failed to warn about the risk. By June 2026, the number of pending federal cases had climbed to 6,651.³

Nothing is moving on the merits at the moment. A stay on all federal pretrial proceedings has been in place since September 2025 and was extended again in December 2025.¹ The court’s focus has shifted to figuring out why so many plaintiffs are refusing the settlement being offered.

In April 2026, Judge Rosenstengel ordered the parties to give Special Master Randi Ellis comprehensive data on which plaintiffs qualify for the settlement, which have opted out, and which remain undecided. She directed Ellis to meet with holdout plaintiffs or their lawyers to confirm they are making “informed decisions” about whether to participate, and set a 90-day progress report.⁴

The April 2025 Settlement Framework

On April 14, 2025, Syngenta and lead plaintiffs’ counsel announced a signed letter agreement intended to resolve “large swaths” of the paraquat litigation. At a hearing the next day, lead plaintiffs’ attorney Khaldoun Baghdadi told the court terms should be finalized within 30 days. There were then more than 5,800 active federal cases, over 450 in California, and many more in other state courts.⁵

More than a year later, the deal has not closed. The per-plaintiff payout tiers and the total dollar amount have not been made public. The biggest sticking point appears to be the opt-out rate. Reports indicate that at some law firms, more than 90 percent of eligible plaintiffs declined the offers.⁴ Mass settlements typically require broad participation to be worthwhile for the defendants, so a refusal rate that high can send negotiators back to the table or unwind the deal entirely.

If you are a claimant, the practical takeaway is that no money is being paid out through the MDL right now, and the amount any individual might receive under the proposed framework has not been disclosed. Anyone weighing an offer is exactly the audience the court is directing the Special Master to reach.

The Daubert Ruling and the Paused Appeal

The reason a settlement matters so much is that plaintiffs are appealing from a loss, not from a position of strength. On April 17, 2024, Judge Rosenstengel excluded the testimony of Dr. Martin Wells, the plaintiffs’ only general-causation expert, after a four-day hearing. The court found “methodological red flags,” including “results-driven” study selection, inconsistent quality standards, and an exposure definition that was “impossible to discern,” and called the work a “textbook example of the standardless presentation of evidence.” Without an expert on whether paraquat can cause Parkinson’s at all, the four bellwether cases could not proceed, and the judge granted summary judgment for the defendants in all four.⁶ The ruling applied the amended Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which took effect in December 2023 and tightened the standard for expert testimony.⁷

Plaintiffs appealed in May 2024. The four consolidated appeals are Richter v. Syngenta, Burgener v. Syngenta, Coward v. Syngenta, and Fuller v. Syngenta (Nos. 24-1865 through 24-1868).⁸ Plaintiffs formally asked the Seventh Circuit to reverse in February 2025. Then, on April 14, 2025, the parties jointly asked the appeals court to hold the appeal in abeyance because they had signed the settlement letter agreement.⁹

The appeal is still paused. If the settlement holds, it likely goes away. If the settlement falls apart, whether the federal cases can move forward at all depends on the Seventh Circuit reviving them.

State Court: Philadelphia Is Where the Pressure Is

The most active state court docket is in Philadelphia, where more than 1,800 cases are pending before Judge Joshua Roberts in the Court of Common Pleas.¹⁰ The first bellwether trial there was set for late January 2026 and involved Bill Merten, a 77-year-old landscaper. Syngenta and Chevron settled on January 28, 2026, the night before jury selection. Terms were confidential.¹¹ Courthouse-steps settlements typically carry a premium price, and a single adverse verdict could set a benchmark that pushes other cases toward higher payouts.² Additional Philadelphia bellwethers were scheduled for April 2026.

Two jurisdiction rulings have kept the Philadelphia docket in place. In October 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Syngenta’s challenge to Pennsylvania’s “consent-by-registration” rule, which allows companies that register to do business in the state to be sued there. And in July 2025, Judge Roberts denied motions by Syngenta and Chevron to dismiss or transfer cases filed by out-of-state plaintiffs.¹⁰ No jury has ever returned a verdict in a paraquat Parkinson’s case; every case that has neared one has settled.

Who Can File a Paraquat Claim

Plaintiffs are people with a confirmed Parkinson’s disease diagnosis who can document paraquat exposure. Most are agricultural workers, but the litigation also includes landscapers, chemical applicators, crop duster pilots, and people who transported the herbicide. Rural residents who lived near sprayed fields and were exposed through air, soil, or water have filed claims, as have family members suing on behalf of deceased relatives.³ Exposure can be established through employment records, military service records, and residential history.

One boundary worth naming: paraquat has been a “restricted use pesticide” in the United States since 1964, meaning only licensed applicators could legally handle it. It has never been available for homeowner or consumer purchase.¹² Claims almost always trace back to occupational or agricultural-community exposure, not to garden or lawn use.

Chevron’s exposure window is narrower than Syngenta’s. Chevron stopped selling paraquat in 1986, and in the MDL, claims against Chevron U.S.A., Inc. have been limited to exposures on or before 1990. Chevron Corporation itself was dismissed early on.¹

Regulatory Moves That Could Shift the Case

Paraquat remains legal in the United States even though more than 70 countries have banned it.¹³ The EPA is in the middle of a 15-year registration review that began in 2011. A July 2021 interim decision imposed new safety measures, including limits on aerial application, a ban on certain spraying equipment, and required enclosed tractor cabs for large-scale use.¹²

The regulatory picture has moved more recently. In January 2024, Syngenta submitted a study indicating paraquat may volatilize more readily than previously believed. By November 2025, the EPA acknowledged “greater uncertainty regarding the potential for paraquat to volatilize than previously considered” and said it would require additional data from manufacturers.¹² In early January 2026, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency would “freshly reassess the safety” of paraquat and require manufacturers to demonstrate the product is safe under real-world conditions.¹⁴

At the state level, at least 13 states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Virginia, and Hawaii, have introduced bills to ban or restrict paraquat use, particularly near schools and public spaces.¹³

Syngenta itself is stepping back from manufacturing. In March 2026, the company announced it would stop making paraquat at its only remaining production facility, in Huddersfield, England, by the end of June 2026, citing “significant competition from generic producers.” Syngenta said paraquat accounts for less than 1 percent of its global sales.¹⁵ The chemical will remain available: more than 750 companies worldwide sell paraquat products, and it is a generic ingredient that other producers continue to supply.¹⁶

What to Watch Next

Three developments will determine where the litigation goes over the next several months. The first is the Special Master’s report to Judge Rosenstengel on why so many plaintiffs are opting out, which is due roughly 90 days after her April 2026 order.⁴ The second is whether the April 2025 settlement framework gets finalized or collapses; if it collapses, the Seventh Circuit appeal of the Daubert ruling will be reactivated and will decide whether the federal MDL has any path to trial. The third is the April 2026 Philadelphia bellwethers, where Syngenta and Chevron have so far chosen to settle rather than let a jury reach a verdict.

1
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois. Paraquat Products Liability Litigation
2
Lawsuit Information Center. Paraquat Lawsuit Settlement Amount
3
TorHoerman Law. Paraquat Lawsuit
4
AboutLawsuits.com. Paraquat Settlement Offers and Special Master MDL Judge Orders
5
Carey Gillam (Substack). Breaking News: Syngenta Settling Paraquat
6
Washington Legal Foundation. In Re Paraquat: Studious Gatekeeping Exposes and Excludes Made-for-Litigation Testimony
7
Atlantic Legal Foundation. ALF Urges Seventh Circuit to Affirm District Court’s Rule 702 Daubert Order
8
Law360. Paraquat Plaintiffs Urge Seventh Circuit to Revive MDL Suits
9
The New Lede. Joint Motion to Hold Appeal in Abeyance
10
Motley Rice. Paraquat Lawsuit
11
Wisner Baum. Paraquat Parkinson’s Lawsuit
12
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Paraquat Dichloride
13
Environmental Working Group. State Bills Show Building Momentum to Ban Toxic Weedkiller Paraquat
14
American Parkinson Disease Association. Paraquat, Parkinson’s Disease, Ban, and State Legislation
15
Syngenta. Syngenta to Cease Paraquat Production in UK
16
AgWeb. Syngenta to Exit Global Paraquat Production in June