J&J talc claimants say company is hindering case investigation

[NEW YORK] A lawyer for claimants suing Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over its baby powder wants a bankruptcy judge to force the pharma giant to produce requested information, saying it's hindering efforts to investigate the case.

"There has been what appears to be a concerted effort to obstruct, limit and delay discovery" in the case, Michael S Winograd, co-counsel to 2 official claimants' committees, wrote in a Dec 28 letter.

A Dec 23 response from J&J saying it wouldn't fulfill the requests "has necessitated a forthcoming motion to compel", wrote Winograd, a partner at Brown Rudnick.

J&J spun its talc liabilities into a separate unit, LTL Management LLC, and put the unit into bankruptcy Oct 14, adding to the complexity of the case and sparking controversy because it's a profitable company.

It's facing 38,000 lawsuits charging that its talc products caused cancer and has pushed to create a trust to pay victims. Winograd said the original claimant committee emailed information requests to J&J counsel on Dec 16. After "radio silence for 4 days", J&J said it wouldn't accept requests about future claims for LTL.

Representatives for J&J didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Jan 11 hearing scheduled to consider LTL's proposed appointment of Joseph W Grier III as legal representative for future talc claimants should be delayed, the letter said.

"For a number of reasons, including circumstances that have arisen during discovery over the past week, the current schedule has become untenable," Winograd wrote.

At the very least, he said, consideration of future claims should be postponed until after a decision on whether to dismiss the case is rendered.

BLOOMBERG