Ten years. Three bankruptcies. Multiple trials. A lead plaintiffs' firm disqualified along the way. The Johnson & Johnson talc litigation has produced just about every issue a mass tort can produce, and for the tens of thousands of women waiting on it, the only question that ever mattered was whether it would actually resolve.

On this episode of Climate Change Environment Science & the Law, host Gregg Goldfarb sits down with Cameron Stevenson, shareholder at Levin Papantonio and one of the primary attorneys involved in the litigation, to walk through the settlement that finally came together. Stevenson explains what "uncapped" means in practice, why the deal is built for current claimants rather than future ones, and why he believes the dollar for dollar recovery for those claimants is substantially better than what the $8.9 billion bankruptcy proposal would have delivered, since that plan would have absorbed future claims, state AG claims, and Canadian class claims and paid out over roughly 25 years.

He also delivers the part of this episode that claimants most need to hear: having a filed case does not automatically mean qualifying. The settlement is built around epithelial ovarian cancer, and Stevenson explains why post-hysterectomy pathology is the document that determines eligibility, and why some cases filed early in the litigation may not make it through. From there, Gregg and Cameron lay out the process step by step: the registration window, the opt-in release, the proof phase, how a case gets plotted on the settlement grid, and the 95% participation threshold the deal has to clear. Stevenson also addresses future diagnoses, why ovarian cancer's long latency means new cases will keep surfacing for decades, and why anyone diagnosed down the road needs to be acutely aware of their own state's statute of limitations. The conversation closes with the reason this episode exists. Attorneys are inundated, calls are rushed, and clients are hanging up unsure of what they were just told. Gregg's call to action is simple: share this with someone who needs it, then take your questions back to your own lawyer.

Join Gregg and Cameron Stevenson on Climate Change Environment Science & the Law as they explore:

0:00 – "It Will Not Qualify"
0:13 – Did Talc Actually Settle?
0:58 – The Settlement Is Real, and It's Finalized
2:18 – Why a Smaller Number Beats the $8.9 Billion Bankruptcy Deal
4:05 – The Diagnoses Still Coming 30 Years From Now
5:22 – The One Document That Decides Your Claim
7:20 – Stop Doing the Math on What You'll Get
7:59 – Inside the Settlement Grid
10:45 – What You Need to Do This Week
11:39 – When the Money Actually Moves
14:47 – The Deadline That Can Still Cost You Everything

Cameron Stevenson is a shareholder at Levin Papantonio and one of the primary attorneys involved in the Johnson & Johnson talcum powder litigation, a mass tort spanning more than a decade, three bankruptcy attempts, and multiple trials. He returns to the show to break down the settlement for the claimants and families who have been waiting on it.

Contact / Follow Cameron Stevenson:

Phone: (850) 435-7176
Email: cstephenson@levinlaw.com
Firm: Levin Papantonio
Website: https://levinlaw.com

To hear more mass tort updates and legal issues shaping our communities, subscribe to Climate Change Environment Science & the Law with Gregg Goldfarb.

Larry Patterson went in for a routine hernia repair. He came out, eventually, with several inches of his bowel removed.

Timothy O'Brien, board-certified trial attorney and shareholder at Levin Papantonio, just won $88 million for Patterson and his wife Tammy against Covidien, a Medtronic company. It is the largest compensatory award in fifteen years of mesh litigation, and the first of roughly 2,500 cases to reach a jury. The mesh, Symbotex, sits right against your intestines behind a collagen barrier meant to last 30 days. Covidien's own internal testing showed it was gone in under seven. They knew in 2003.

O'Brien walks Gregg through the evidence that turned the trial, where sales staff swore to doctors the barrier lasted a month while R&D said otherwise in writing. He also maps the hernia mesh lawsuit landscape, from the Bard settlement covering 33,000 claimants to why Medtronic Covidien is the last major manufacturer still fighting, and what a bellwether verdict actually means for the thousands of people still waiting on their own cases

Join Gregg and Timothy O'Brien on Climate Change Environment Science & the Law as they explore:

• Why a generation of surgeons stopped doing tissue-to-tissue repair, and what that traded away

• How Symbotex's protective barrier was supposed to work, and how fast it actually disappeared

• The 2003 document that locked in the depositions and became the case's spine

• Why sales and R&D were telling two completely different stories about the same product

• What a bellwether trial is, and why the first one carries the most weight

• Where the Bard, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic Covidien litigations stand right now

• Why about 100 new Covidien cases are still being filed every month

• What Covidien's planned appeal means for people still waiting

• How to find out if you or someone you love has a case

0:00 – "They are lying": the sales pitch vs. the truth
0:48 – Meet attorney Timothy O'Brien
1:02 – The hernia mesh "safety feature" that failed
2:06 – Why hernia mesh exists in the first place
4:13 – The Patterson case: what happened to the plaintiff
5:41 – The depositions that exposed Covidien
7:46 – 2003: when they allegedly knew the truth
9:33 – The 3 major mesh manufacturers, explained
11:59 – What a "bellwether trial" means for your case
14:07 – Will Covidien settle or appeal?
17:40 – How to contact Timothy O'Brien about your case

Timothy O'Brien is a board-certified trial attorney and shareholder at Levin Papantonio, where he has served as lead or co-lead counsel in mass tort litigation against major hernia mesh manufacturers, including Bard, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic Covidien. He recently helped secure an $88 million verdict in the first bellwether trial of the Covidien hernia mesh multidistrict litigation.

Contact / Follow Timothy O'Brien:

Firm: Levin Papantonio

Website: https://levinlaw.com

Want more conversations that cut through the noise on science, climate, and the issues shaping our future? Subscribe to Climate Change Environment Science & the Law with Gregg Goldfarb for new episodes every week.

Richard Lamondin and his brother started their company 13 years ago after reading that a fifth of all toilets leak, learning to replace them from YouTube videos, and going door to door at apartment communities. That business became ecofi, a national firm that cuts energy and water use in buildings. On this episode of Climate Change Environment Science & the Law, he tells host Gregg Goldfarb why that work led him to run for the Florida Senate in District 38.

The through line is affordability. Richard lays out what he sees as the squeeze on Miami families, from preschool costs to rents to a property insurance market he says has become unaffordable, and argues that Florida's problem is one of priorities rather than funding. He also explains what a legislative supermajority is, why he says most of the decisions that touch daily life come from Tallahassee rather than Washington, and what breaking that math would change at the committee level.

Gregg, an environmental lawyer, brings his own history to the table, including an early case in the Keys built on the argument that in South Florida the environment is the economy. From there the two get into coastal resilience: storm surge, living sea walls, mangroves, fish stocks, fertilizer runoff and algae blooms, and saltwater intrusion into the aquifer. Richard's case is that decades of inaction on coastal risk are a direct upstream cause of today's insurance bills.

They also cover why South Florida has so little rooftop solar despite the climate, the Everglades restoration work Richard says has stalled, and what his first 100 days and first three bills would look like.

Join Gregg and Richard Lamondin on Climate Change Environment Science & the Law as they explore:

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – "Can people actually make it here?" The real Florida crisis
0:40 – Meet the guy trying to flip Florida's most winnable Senate seat
1:33 – From fixing toilets to running for Senate (the EcoFi origin story)
2:43 – $2,000/month for preschool. Florida's affordability breaking point
3:59 – Alligator Alcatraz and the $10 land deal for Trump's private library
6:05 – "Silence is complicity." Calling out his opponent
8:58 – Did she back Alligator Alcatraz? His answer will surprise you
10:43 – The one seat that breaks Florida's Republican supermajority
13:44 – Is protecting the environment going to cost you money? His answer
16:55 – Florida is the Sunshine State, so why is solar this hard?
19:23 – Alligator Alcatraz's hidden victim: Florida's darkest skies
21:31 – His first 100 days in office, mapped out
23:46 – How to help flip the seat

Richard Lamondin is a born and raised Miamian and the co-founder and CEO of ecofi, a sustainability firm that works with real estate owners nationwide to reduce energy use, water use, and utility costs through renewables, LED lighting, water efficiency, and EV charging infrastructure.

He and his brother started the company 13 years ago after learning to replace leaking toilets from YouTube videos and going door to door at apartment communities. He is a first-time candidate for the Florida Senate in District 38, which covers coastal Miami-Dade from Brickell and Key Biscayne to Homestead, where he is challenging the district's incumbent.

Contact/Follow Richard Lamondin:

• Website: https://richard.vote/
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richard-lamondin-jr-7a1b221a

Contact/Follow his company:

• Website: https://goecofi.com/
• Email: hello@goecofi.com

Want more conversations that cut through the noise on science, climate, and the issues shaping our future? Subscribe to Climate Change Environment Science & the Law with Gregg Goldfarb for new episodes every week.