A federal judge ordered a new round of settlement talks between Johnson & Johnson and lawyers who spurned the company’s offer to pay $8.9 billion to end tens of thousands of cancer claims filed by people who used the company’s popular baby powder, Bloomberg News reported. Holdouts want to take their claims to juries around the country instead of joining a proposal that would resolve all current and future lawsuits related to the health care giant’s talc-based products. About 40,000 people have sued J&J claiming the company for decades sold products like baby powder that were so contaminated that they caused cancer. J&J denies that the products were harmful and is trying for a second time to use a bankruptcy case filed in New Jersey by a small unit to force claimants to accept a deal. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan overruled objections from some of the holdouts who had opposed one of two mediators that will oversee the confidential settlement discussions.
