Roundup Cancer Lawsuit

Our lawyers are handling Roundup cases in all 50 states.

Monsanto Roundup lawsuits have led Bayer to pay billions of dollars in settlement compensation payouts to victims and their families with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

If you have a new Roundup herbicide non-Hodgin’s lymphoma cancer case, call a Roundup attorney.  Not today.  Right now.  Because the statute of limitations may come upon you quickly.  The statute of limitations is a harsh and unforgiving deadline that is nearly impossible to get around. But there are exceptions you might be able to jump through.   You can call our Roundup lawyers at 800-553-8082.

Roundup Lawsuit January 2024 News

Since the $11 billion settlement, Bayer went on an unfortunate hot streak, winning nine verdicts in a row.  But they were settling out the best cases for plaintiffs. The dam broke this fall in St. Louis with a $1.25 million decision and was followed by larger awards in Philadelphia, San Diego, and Jefferson City, totaling over $2 billion. The latest verdict from Philadelphia awarded $3.5 million to the plaintiffs. That is five wins in a row.  Just before Christmas, we lost one in California’s San Benito County. That does not slow plaintiffs’ momentum as we open up a new trial schedule in 2024.

Date	Location	Verdict Amount
Oct. 20	St. Louis	$1.25 million
Oct. 27	Philadelphia	$175 million
Oct. 31	San Diego	$332 million
Nov. 17	Jefferson City, Missouri	$1.56 billion
Dec. 5	Philadelphia	$3.5 million

The summary of it all?  Plaintiffs have really turned the corner in this litigation.

Roundup Lawsuit March 2023 News

In 2019, Bayer tried and failed to push through a global settlement that would have resolved most existing claims and created a fund for future claims. After that proposal was shot down by the MDL Judge, Bayer changed adopted a new settlement strategy by setting aside $16 billion to cover Roundup liabilities and then settling out large blocks of cases with individual plaintiffs’ law firms.

It was reported that Bayer had settled over 80% of the pending Roundup cases through these block settlements, but nobody really knows for sure how many cases have settled.

Meanwhile, thousands of Roundup lawsuits have not been settled and remain pending in both state and federal courts around the country. It is believed that Bayer is still planning to settle most of these cases and just working toward that. In some instances, however, Bayer has been taking certain cases to trial in state courts. Most of these recent Roundup trials have resulted in defense verdicts for Bayer, but that is because Bayer is deliberately picking out the weaker cases to take to trial.

Roundup Lawsuit October 2022 News

Langford v. Monsanto is set for trial in California state court early next month.

In other news, there is an accumulation of evidence that Roundup may cause other types of cancer and injuries.  Does that surprise anyone?   Both liver damage and thyroid cancer are potential harms, according to two new studies.

Thyroid Cancer

A new research study from UCLA has found that it might also cause thyroid cancer. The study looked at the health impact of residential exposure to 29 different pesticides/herbicides over a long time period. It found that Roundup use caused a 36% increase in the rate of thyroid cancer.

Liver Damage

A new research study from Brazil published in the Journal of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology reported that prenatal exposure to Roundup can cause oxidative damage to the liver and result in glyphosate-induced hepatoxicity.

This study looked at the effects of glyphosate on the livers of baby rats whose mothers drank water with glyphosate in it. The study found that the glyphosate caused changes in the rats’ liver cells, which led to problems the liver. The chemical also caused problems with the rats’ immune systems and made their bodies produce more of certain chemicals associated with inflammation. The study suggests that glyphosate exposure in early life might be harmful to the liver and could cause other health problems.

Roundup Lawsuit August 2022 News

Plaintiff lost the Shelton case.  But the good thing about 2022 Roundup lawsuits is if you don’t like a verdict, another trial is around the corner.  Another Roundup trial is in its second week in St. Louis, a much better jurisdiction for plaintiffs.

In other news, science is continuing to raise new concerns about Roundup.  A new study recently published suggests that glyphosate, the ingredient in Roundup that has been linked to lymphoma, may also be linked to an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease and neurologic disorders.

The study appeared in the Journal of Neuroinflammation and found that glyphosate is able to pass through the blood-brain barrier, which is an attribute displayed by chemicals that are known to cause neurologic disorders.

Roundup Lawsuit June 2022 News

The big thing in Roundup lawsuit right now is the Shelton case in Kansas City in Missouri state court.   This trial, which has been proceeding at a snail’s pace, is now in Bayer’s case.  We could get a verdict as early as next week depending upon how many witnesses Bayer’s attorneys want to call.

This week, the plaintiffs’ case came to a close and Monsanto promptly filed a motion for a directed verdict. We see these motions by defendants in tort cases all the time, but trial courts rarely grant them. On Wednesday, the Court denied Monsanto’s earlier motion which sought to have the testimony of the plaintiff’s causation expert (Dr. Kenneth Spaeth) stricken. Bayer has started calling its witness and hopefully, this trial concludes soon.

Roundup Lawsuit Continues in March 2022

But Roundup lawsuits continue to be filed.  There are almost 4,000 lawsuits still pending in the Roundup MDL class action in California as of March 2022.  There are many thousands more filed in state court.

Some of these lawsuits are because Bayer could not reach an agreed-upon settlement amount with the victim. But new glyphosate victims are filing lawsuits all of the time and victims call my office every day.

Stephens Lawsuit Rejected in California

In fact, on December 9, 2021, there was a new Roundup verdict.  The first defeat for a Roundup NHL victim.  This 4^th jury trial in the continuing Roundup litigation involved a woman who claimed she developed NHL from Roundup.  The plaintiff was a woman in her 70s who alleged that she developed lymphoma from years of using Roundup in her home garden.

The trial in Donnetta Stephens v. Monsanto was an unusual trial.  The entire proceedings were conducted via Zoom video conference because of COVID restrictions in California.  So, yes, any loss is a tough loss and it is hard not to feel for Ms. Stephens.  But trying such a complex case by Zoom and all the emotion that is lost online… it is hard to put much stock in this verdict or think that it is a harbinger of things to come.

Bayer’s Supreme Court Effort to Stop Roundup Lawsuits

The remaining Roundup cases in federal court are on hold while Bayer continues to await word on whether the Supreme Court will hear its appeal from the Ninth Circuit in the Hardeman case. In December, the court punted on deciding on Bayer’s petition for certiorari (which means agreeing to hear the appeal).  Instead, the Court invited the Biden administration to weigh in with its own brief to see if the government will side with Bayer as the Trump administration did.  That has not happened yet and there is no deadline so this could drag through the end of the year.

Roundup Causes Cancer Years After Exposure

There are two reasons Roundup lawsuits will continue for years.  First, Glyphosate-induced non-Hodgkin’s cancer does not develop overnight.  You can develop cancer from Roundup more than ten years later.  People who used Roundup years ago are now calling our Roundup lawyers to bring a claim.

Roundup Is Still on the Market

Second, I don’t think there has been a class action lawsuit in world history where the defendant paid $11 billion and keep the product on the market without a warning. That would seem insane, right?  But that is exactly what is happening here. So more Roundup lawsuits will continue to get filed.

• Next herbicide up for a class action lawsuit: Paraquat

How Roundup Started

In 1901, Monsanto was founded and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. In 1950, Swiss chemist Dr. Henri Martin discovered glyphosate. In 1970, Monsanto scientist John Franz discovered that glyphosate could be used as a weed killer, and the company patented it. In 1974, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered glyphosate for use as an herbicide.

The Crux of the Roundup Litigation

A key ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is associated with several cancers, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and hairy cell leukemia.

Glyphosate

Glyphosate is a chemical that can be sprayed on plants from the ground or from the air. It is used to change the way plants grow and ripen. Farmers use it on peanuts by spraying it on the ground, and on sugarcane by spraying it from the air. They also spray it directly on wheat just before harvesting, which is known as “browning” or “desiccating.”

When glyphosate is sprayed on plants, it is absorbed by the leaves and stems and spread throughout the plant. It works by disrupting an important process called the shikimate acid pathway. This process is needed for plants to make essential amino acids. Glyphosate stops the pathway by blocking a key enzyme called EPSP synthase.

Lawsuits About Two Primary Cancers: NHL and  CLL

Evidence has been building for years that glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and hairy cell leukemia.No one knows the exact mechanism of how Roundup causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or CLL.

But glyphosate and lymphoma studies show that glyphosate causes damage to the DNA of cells and alters the cell’s regulatory systems. This disturbs our body’s, normal physiologic response system and ultimately causes cell death and the formation of tumors. Additionally, glyphosate has been shown to cause potent inhibitions in the xenobiotic-metabolizing enzyme CYP2C9 223 which is responsible for biotransformation, metabolism and elimination of various toxic compounds from the body.  But none of this really matters, right? The question is whether glyphosate causes these cancers, however it does that.

Lawsuits and Verdicts

This concern has caused public outrage by consumers who have been using Roundup for years or even decades.  Monsanto vigorously found the possibility that Roundup causes cancer. After Bayer purchased Monsanto, Bayer grabbed the torch of defending the safety of the produce.

Undeterred, lawyers filed thousands of lawsuits from victims who claim Roundup failed to warn of the possible risks with glyphosate and that the chemical ultimately caused their cancer.

In 2016, after cases began to pile up against the company, a federal judiciary panel created a Roundup MDL, which is a “sort of” class action of all the Roundup cases in federal court.  This had the great benefit of allowing plaintiffs’ attorneys to work together to develop the facts and the science behind the glyphosate claims.

The first Roundup verdict came in August 2018 when jurors awarded a plaintiff with terminal cancer $289 million in damages to a groundskeeper exposed to glyphosate weed killer.  The jury found that Roundup was a substantial factor in Dewayne Johnson’s Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  Importantly, $250 million of that award was punitive damages.  What does that tell you?  It tells you that the jury was angry.

That amount stunned everyone. Me included.  Immediately, Bayer’s stock plummeted as the company began truly digesting, maybe for the first time, what the litigation exposure they had in these cases.

In February 2019, the first federal court case from the Roundup MDL went to trial and ordered Monsanto to pay out $80 million. Only 3 months later, in May 2019, Monsanto was hit once again when jurors awarded a plaintiff with a staggering $2 billion.  Sure, some of these verdicts have been reduced.  But the jurors are sending a loud message.  This is how the mass settlement happened.

What Is the Average Settlement Payout for the Roundup Lawsuit?

The average settlement payout ranges from $125,000 to $175,000 depending on what deal individual lawyers negotiated. Wrongful death cases were worth more as are cases where there were not statute of limitations complications

Frequency, duration, and circumstances of her Roundup exposure are also relevant considerations in the points calculation to determine Roundup settlement amounts.

What Is Bayer’s Latest Strategy on New Round Lawsuits?

Bayer has been arguing forever that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts failure to warn of the non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk of Roundup. The idea, in a nutshell, is that federal law prevents any state court claims.

No one is buying it. A few months ago, the 9th Circuit ruled that a Roundup plaintiff’s failure-to-warn claim was fully consistent with FIFRA. But Bayer is hoping against hope that the Supreme Court will take up the case.  But in May 2022, the Biden administration all but ruined any possibility of that happening as you will see in the updates above.

Now, Bayer new strategy is to go to war and take cases to trial.  Every Roundup lawsuit?  No. Bayer is cherrypicking cases for residental uses with more limited proven exposure to trial and settling the cases victims should win.

What Happens for New Roundup Lawsuits?

The old Roundup lawsuits will settle and people should get their money in 2023 if they have not already.

Our Roundup lawyers expect more lawsuits in jurisdictions like California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, and Florida in state court.

Our Roundup attorneys also believe that recently diagnosed NHL cases are likely to have higher settlement compensation payouts than older cases. Why?  Clearly, Bayer knows of the risk of Roundup and it is making, we think, a very cold-blooded calculus that the lawsuits will be cheaper than the cost of giving up such a lucrative product.  But Bayer has won some cases since those settlements.  So my revised prediction is settlement amounts for newly diagnosed Roundup cases will be in the same range as the current Roundup settlements that are settling in the mid-$150,000 range.

What Other Cancers Could Be Caused by Roundup?

We do not know what other cancers could be caused by Roundup. What we do know is that when glyphosate is digested by animals, the chemical is excreted to some degree through the urinary system. So it is reasonable to suspect pieces of the urinary system (bladder, kidney, ureter) as possible Roundup-related cancers.

To be clear, our Roundup lawyers are not handling these claims, at least not yet.

For many of our clients in the settlement, it will hopefully be in 2021.  Some of our clients have already received settlement compensation.  Others will not get resolved in 2022.  Some issues need to be sorted out first.

When Will Settlements Be Paid on Newly Filed Roundup Lawsuits?

One large $11 billion group of Roundup lawsuits have been settled. Some of those victims have already received most if not all of their settlement amounts. Most of the other Roundup settlements that have been resolved are still waiting for their claims to be finalized (yes, this takes way too long).

There is going to be a second round of claims that are newly filed lawsuits or Roundup claims that did not join the settlement. We do not know when those cases will be settled. The hope is that there will soon be a second round of Roundup settlements where the average settlement compensation amounts are higher than the first round. If and when that happens remains to be seen. But our lawyers are hopeful. 

What Are Roundup Settlement Points?

When most of the Roundup cases settled, how much money each victim received depended upon certain criteria designed to determine the severity of the injury and the strength of each Roundup lawsuit.  So the settlement amounts were based on certain benchmarks.   Each point has a certain value attached, say $400 a point.  Points are “earned” for such factors as

• Scope of NHL treatment
• Age at NHL diagnosis
• Death
• Amount of Roundup exposure (groundskeepers and gardeners would, for example, see higher settlement amounts)
• Lack of risk factors for NHL

What Is Glyphosate?

Glyphosate is a colorless, odorless, crystalline salt is formulated by combining the deprotonated glyphosate acid and a cation (isopropylamine, ammonium, or sodium).  Glyphosate is thought to be the chemical in Roundup that causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  It was first developed by Monsanto in the 1970s and is now sold under various brand names, including Roundup, Rodeo, and Pondmaster.

Glyphosate works by disrupting a crucial metabolic process in plants known as the shikimate acid pathway. This process is responsible for the production of three essential amino acids that plants need to survive. When glyphosate is applied to plants, it inhibits the activity of an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which is involved in the shikimate acid pathway. This prevents the plants from producing these essential amino acids, and they eventually die.

Glyphosate is used extensively in agriculture, forestry, and urban weed control. It is primarily used on crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton, as well as on non-crop areas such as lawns, gardens, and parks. Glyphosate is often used in combination with other herbicides and pesticides to control weeds and pests more effectively.

We know humans and animals absorb glyphosate because it can be found in blood and urine. We also know that Roundup also has a substance called a surfactant that helps glyphosate get absorbed into the skin more easily. The surfactant called polyethoxylated ethyl amine (POEA) is banned in Europe because it can cause genetic damage.

Is NHL a Common Type of Cancer?

According to the American Cancer Society, NHL is a relatively common cancer. There are approximately 75,000 new NHL cases reported every year in the United States  Men are a slightly greater risk.  The risk a man will develop NHL in his lifetime is about 1 in 41; for a woman, the risk is about 1 in 54.”

New Roundup Lawsuit – November 2021

Let’s take a look at a typical Roundup lawsuit being filed in 2021.

A former Ohio Department of Transportation groundskeeper, Gene Wyatt, became one of the most recent plaintiffs to join the continuing Roundup litigation.

On November 18, 2021, Wyatt filed a Roundup lawsuit against Monsanto in federal court in Ohio asserting Roundup product liability claims. Last week, Wyatt’s case was transferred into the Roundup Class Action MDL in the Northern District of California.

Wyatt is a prototypical Roundup plaintiff. He regularly used Roundup as part of his job while employed at the Ohio Department of Transportation facility in Washington Courthouse, Ohio from 2001 to 2011. Wyatt applied Roundup with a vegetative applicator weekly throughout his 10-year period of employment. In January 2015, several years after his occupational Roundup exposure, Wyatt was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Wyatt’s lawsuit alleges that his cancer was a direct result of his weekly use of Roundup for 10 years.

Getting a Roundup Lawyer for Your Lawsuit

If you have a potential Roundup lawsuit, our lawyers are here to help. Call us today at 800-553-8082.  There is no hard sales pitch.  We will answer your questions and invite you to join the MDL class action lawsuit or state court claims if you qualify.  You can also reach out to us online.