Johnson & Johnson will likely have to wait until next year before it can restart negotiations to resolve 38,000 lawsuits filed by people who claim one of its oldest products, baby powder, causes cancer and other diseases, Bloomberg News reported. A federal judge questioned whether spending money on formal settlement talks makes sense while victim advocates oppose mediation. “I can order it tomorrow, but I don’t have any great anticipation there will be” progress, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael B. Kaplan said yesterday during a court hearing in Trenton, N.J. “I’d rather have their hearts and souls in it.” Last month, J&J created a unit to hold its talc liabilities and then put that company, which has no operations, into bankruptcy. The goal is to negotiate with victims to create a trust with at least $2 billion to pay all current and future baby-powder claims. The bankrupt unit, LTL Management, wants to get mediation started immediately, Greg Gordon, the lawyer leading the chapter 11 case, said in court. Before LTL filed bankruptcy, the groups made “good progress” in settlement talks as part of a separate bankruptcy case filed in Delaware by the former J&J talc supplier, Imerys Talc America, Gordon said. Tens of thousands of women claim the talc in baby powder causes cancer, a charge J&J denies. For years, the company focused on fighting lawsuits one at a time in courts around the country until the consumer giant switched tactics and decided to try to resolve all current and future claims in bankruptcy.
