National Trial Lawyers and President Lisa Blue Join in Brief of 93 Law Firms, 167 Lawyers Opposing Proposed Settlement of Future Roundup Claims
National Trial Lawyers President Lisa Blue, individually and on behalf of the organization’s approximately 14,000 members, joined yesterday in the amici curiae brief filed last week by ninety-three law firms and 167 lawyers nationwide opposing a proposed class action settlement of all future claims against Monsanto by injured people charging that Roundup caused their cancer – including claims by people who have no injury or cancer now and may not have any for decades. The Joinder in Opposition filed by Blue, past President of the American Association for Justice, in federal court in San Francisco Monday afternoon, says the proposed settlement “will hurt the proposed class members, not help them.”
The National Trial Lawyers (NTL) is a professional organization of approximately 14,000 civil and criminal trial lawyers from across the country, a significant portion of whom practice mass tort litigation. The Joinder in Opposition agrees with the amici curiae that “the proposed settlement seriously endangers access to justice for millions of people in the proposed class, would prevent Monsanto’s victims from holding it accountable, and would reward Monsanto in numerous respects.”
“We are proud to have Lisa Blue and the National Trial Lawyers join in our brief opposing this latest attempt to misuse a class action to settle future Roundup victims’ claims,” said Arthur H. Bryant of Bailey Glasser, LLP, the lead author of the amici curiae brief and former Chairman of Public Justice. “This underscores how dangerous the proposed settlement is, both to potential Roundup victims and to our system of justice.”
The proposed settlement would eliminate all class members’ claims for punitive damages and medical monitoring, create a secret science panel to see if its members agree with all three juries to hear the evidence that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a deadly form of cancer), and stay all Roundup litigation for four years.
The Joinder in Opposition was written by Ted W. Pelletier of the Law Office of Ted W. Pelletier in San Anselmo, CA. The amici curiae (“friend of the court”) brief was written by Bryant, Benjamin L. Bailey of Bailey Glasser in Charleston, WV, and Joshua I. Hammack of Bailey Glasser in Washington, DC.
To read the amici curiae brief filed by ninety-three law firms and 167 lawyers in federal court last week, click here.
To read the Joinder filed by Lisa Blue, individually and as current President on Behalf of National Trial Lawyers, click here.