Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Talcum Powder and Hair Relaxer Dockets Dominate Daily Filings as Uber and Depo-Provera MDLs Accelerate

Federal dockets recorded 59 mass tort filings over the past 24 hours, with actionable activity heavily concentrated in the Talcum Powder Litigation (MDL 2738), where plaintiffs continue to allege that legacy talc-based products caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. The sprawling docket captured a leading 16 new complaints, driven by a sustained push from Ashcraft Gerel LLP (10), alongside additions from Frazer PLC (5) and the Wagstaff Law Firm (1).

Consumer product liability claims also maintained high velocity, as the Hair Relaxer Litigation (MDL 3060) generated 8 new filings alleging that endocrine-disrupting chemicals in chemical straighteners caused uterine and ovarian cancers. Johnson Law Group (4) directed this latest wave, supported by single filings from The Cochran Firm (1), Dicello Levitt LLP (1), Ferrell Law Group (1), and Lieff Cabraser (1).

Matching that volume, the Uber Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation (MDL 3084) registered 8 new complaints from plaintiffs alleging the ride-share giant failed to implement adequate safety measures to protect riders from predatory drivers. Cutter Law PC (4) accounted for half of those actions, with Chaffin Luhana LLP (2) and MCH Law PLLC (2) filling out the remainder. Meanwhile, the Depo-Provera Litigation (MDL 3140) continues to scale aggressively with 7 new complaints linking the contraceptive injection to intracranial meningiomas, led by Napoli Shkolnik (3), Johnson Law Group (2), Hochman Law Firm PLLC (1), and Meshbesher & Spence (1). As newer dockets rapidly scale to match the volume of legacy litigations, practitioners should anticipate aggressive early-stage maneuvering over causation and bellwether selection protocols.

U.S. House Strips Bayer Liability Shield From Spending Bill, Preserving Roundup Cancer-Suit Pipeline

On May 12, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove provisions that would have shielded Bayer AG from state-law failure-to-warn claims tied to its Roundup glyphosate herbicide, eliminating what the chemical maker had pursued as a federally codified preemption defense in pending and future non-Hodgkin lymphoma actions. The rejected language would have effectively foreclosed cancer plaintiffs from advancing the state pesticide-labeling theories that have driven multibillion-dollar Roundup verdicts and settlements over the past several years. The House vote leaves Bayer's preemption strategy resting on the still-pending U.S. Supreme Court deliberations in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, where the company is asking the Court to read the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act as displacing state cancer claims. For plaintiff-side firms, the result preserves a docket that LexGenius continues to track across thousands of individual Roundup MDL and state-court complaints, and removes the near-term threat of a congressional cutoff that would have stranded unfiled cases. Practitioners should anticipate accelerated filings ahead of any Supreme Court ruling, as Bayer's path to limiting exposure now turns almost entirely on the judicial preemption question.

JPML to Consider Spinal Cord Stimulator and Dupixent Centralization at May Hearing

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is set to convene on May 28, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it will weigh consolidation for two emerging mass torts. For the first docket, there is a JPML consolidation motion pending for the Spinal Cord Stimulator Products Liability Litigation (proposed MDL 3181) concerning defective implantable devices. Furthermore, there is a JPML petition for centralization pending regarding the Dupixent CTCL Products Liability Litigation, where plaintiffs allege the biologic treatment is linked to cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and an MDL number is not yet assigned. These upcoming hearings represent a critical juncture for both product liability dockets. The panel's subsequent rulings will ultimately determine whether these dispersed individual federal claims will be formally coordinated for streamlined pretrial discovery and future bellwether proceedings.