After Johnson & Johnson got hit with a $1 billion verdict last week, plaintiffs lawyers were quick to paint a portrait of the company as an aggressive litigator uninterested in settling whose actions have prompted juries to award gargantuan punitive damages. It’s the same refrain that plaintiffs attorneys have been touting this year as Johnson & Johnson has gotten hammered with five big verdicts over its hip implants and talcum powder products.
But it’s not a complete picture. Attorney John Beisner, who oversees much of Johnson & Johnson’s products liability litigation, including talcum powder and hip implant cases, said 2016 just happened to be a bad year for trials. But he also pointed out that the verdicts have come out of just two courtrooms, where judges in both matters have allowed jurors to hear evidence that never should have been introduced—a key argument in appeals that have just begun.
