Overview
Thousands of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer have filed lawsuits alleging that long-term use of talc powder caused their illness. The litigation has moved through multiple phases over the past several years, including three attempts by Johnson & Johnson to resolve the claims through bankruptcy and ongoing trials in state and federal courts. This page walks through the key events in the record in date order and explains where the litigation stands today.
The Bankruptcy Attempts
First and Second Bankruptcy Dismissals
In July 2023, a federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey dismissed the second bankruptcy filing that Johnson & Johnson had used to try to resolve the talc lawsuits.[1] The court rejected this attempt to use the bankruptcy process to address the claims.
Third Bankruptcy Filing
On September 20, 2024, Red River Talc LLC, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas.[2] The filing was intended to carry out a proposed settlement of roughly $8 billion for talc cancer claims.[2]
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal process that allows a company to reorganize its debts and obligations under court supervision. In mass tort cases, companies sometimes use this process to try to resolve large numbers of claims at once through a plan that must be approved by the bankruptcy court.
Third Bankruptcy Dismissal
On March 31, 2025, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez refused to confirm the Red River Talc plan and dismissed the bankruptcy.[3] This marked the third time courts rejected the bankruptcy route for these claims.[3]
On the same day, Johnson & Johnson said it would not appeal and would return to litigating the talc claims in the courts.[4]
Trial Activity
In December 2025, a California jury awarded $40 million to two plaintiffs in an ovarian cancer talc trial in California state court.[5] This verdict represents a jury determination in favor of the plaintiffs in that specific case. The lawsuits allege that long-term talc powder use caused ovarian cancer, but no court has issued a ruling establishing as fact across all cases that the product causes the disease or that the company knew of any such risk.
The Federal MDL
As of July 2026, the federal talc MDL, No. 2738, before Judge Michael A. Shipp in the District of New Jersey, had 68,435 pending cases.[2] Most are ovarian cancer claims, which are on a court-ordered mediation track.[2]
An MDL, or multidistrict litigation, is a procedure used in federal court to consolidate similar cases from around the country before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. This allows the court to handle common issues efficiently, such as discovery and motions, while individual cases can later be sent back to their original courts for trial if they are not resolved.
Mediation is a process in which a neutral third party helps the sides try to reach a settlement. When cases are placed on a mediation track, the court is directing the parties to attempt to resolve claims through negotiation rather than trial.
Where Things Stand Today
The talc ovarian cancer litigation is proceeding in multiple courts. The federal MDL in New Jersey contains tens of thousands of cases that are in court-ordered mediation. Individual trials continue in state courts, as shown by the December 2025 California verdict. Johnson & Johnson has stated it will litigate the claims after the bankruptcy route was rejected for the third time in March 2025.
The record we track does not show any global settlement in place, any scheduled trial dates in the federal MDL, or any final resolution of the majority of pending claims.
What Is Not Known Yet
The record does not show how many cases in the federal MDL have settled through the mediation process or how many remain active. It does not show whether any additional trials are scheduled in state or federal court, or what the outcomes of any other individual trials have been beyond the December 2025 California verdict. The record also does not show whether Johnson & Johnson or the plaintiffs will pursue any further settlement negotiations outside of bankruptcy, or what the timeline may be for resolving the tens of thousands of pending cases.
Sources
- LTL Management (Bankr. D.N.J.) (2023-07-01). Secondary report: darrow.ai
- Red River Talc LLC (Bankr. S.D. Tex.) (2024-09-20). Secondary report: consumernotice.org
- Red River Talc LLC (Bankr. S.D. Tex.) (2025-03-31). Secondary report: businesswire.com
- Red River Talc LLC (Bankr. S.D. Tex.) (2025-03-31). Secondary report: octus.com
- California state court (2025-12-01). Secondary report: jdsupra.com
Litigation facts on this page come from the TortIntel litigation record and the documents linked above. Last checked against that record on 2026-10-24. If you see an error, tell us and we will correct it.