Early in the litigation, Judge Rowland determined that a series of bellwether test trials will be held to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to the claims, and promote potential hair relaxer settlement agreements between the parties. However, plaintiffs and defendants have been unable to agree on a structure for selecting a group of representative claims.
In November 2023, Judge Rowland initially asked the parties to jointly propose hair relaxer lawsuit bellwether trial plans, outlining a process for selecting a group of representative cases to go through case-specific discovery in preparation for early trial dates. However, after the hair relaxer lawyers were unable to agree on a selection process, they turned in competing proposals in November 2024.
Judge Calls for Large Hair Relaxer Bellwether Pool
Originally, the parties’ plans called for each side to select eight cases each to serve as the initial bellwether pool, which would then go through case-specific discovery, resulting in five of the 16 total cases being selected for trial. However, after reviewing the proposals and hearing arguments from both sides twice last month, Judge Rowland issued a memorandum opinion and order (PDF) on January 31, indicating plaintiffs and defendants should select a much larger bellwether pool of 20 cases each, for a total bellwether pool of 40 trial cases.
“Preparing only five cases for trial runs the risk of these cases resolving short of trial or being subject to a dispositive motion and, thus, not being available to serve as representative bellwether cases. This is not an opportunity for one side’s advocacy to win the day and put forward their strongest cases, instead the parties should aim to select and try representative cases,” Judge Rowland wrote. “Thus, the parties are required to each select twenty (20) case for bellwether discovery with up to twelve (12) total cases ultimately selected for the trial pool.”
In addition, Judge Rowland called on the parties to limit those selections to cases involving reproductive cancer injuries, including uterine cancer, ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. However, other injuries can be included in those cases, if the plaintiff also has one of those three cancer diagnoses, she determined.
“From the early stages of this litigation, the parties have agreed on the utility of bellwether trials to evaluate the thousands of cases in this MDL and to drive global resolution,” said Judge Rowland in the memorandum. “The aim of the bellwether process is to garner information useful for the parties to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments and evidence, as well as to assess the risks and costs of litigation. To achieve these goals, the results of the bellwether trials must be reasonably representative of all the cases int the MDL.”
Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Bellwether Selection Deadlines
The hair relaxer bellwether cases must be selected from those with Short Form Complaints filed and served by February 1, 2024, which includes about 5,230 of the claims pending in the MDL, according to the order. However, Judge Rowland indicates the pool of cases will be further limited to plaintiffs who have submitted substantially complete Plaintiff Fact Sheets by February 28, 2025.
The Court has set a deadline of April 30 for the parties to submit and exchange their lists of initial bellwether discovery cases, noting that the date is firm, and no extensions will be granted.
The order includes a timeline for bellwether discovery that calls for the parties to file a joint status report identifying the 40 initial discovery cases by May 9, with the close of case-specific fact discovery scheduled for February 16, 2026.
Issues regarding general causation as to whether plaintiffs can prove the hair relaxer products can cause reproductive cancer, are expected to last until January 6, 2027, which suggests the earliest a first bellwether trial could go before a jury would be mid-to-late 2027.
Judge Rowland has tasked the parties with filing a joint proposed case management order on bellwether selection and procedures, that incorporate the rulings from this order, by February 21.
While the outcome of these early trials will not be binding on other women presenting a claim, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation, and may have a substantial impact on the timing and average amounts of any hair relaxer settlements offered to women diagnosed with uterine cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer in future years. However, if no settlement agreement is reached, each claim will be remanded back to various different U.S. District Courts for individual trials in the coming years.