Many of you will have heard reports in the news about a massive settlement in the Roundup litigation. Roundup’s manufacturer Monsanto and its parent corporation Bayer AG have agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle these cases. This followed a string of Plaintiff’s verdicts against Monsanto, many of which awarded substantial punitive damages against the manufacturer based on its own internal documents demonstrating that the product was never adequately tested on humans.
The settlement is unusual in one respect in that Monsanto did not create a single “global settlement” plan in which all Plaintiffs could participate. Rather, Monsanto is negotiating separately with each individual Plaintiff’s law firm. We are currently in the process of negotiating settlements on our Roundup cases with Monsanto’s lawyers, and would be happy to assist anyone who may have a Roundup case that they want to resolve. Note that the settlement criteria is very strict, and Monsanto is only settling cases where the Plaintiff has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and is not paying any settlements for any other type of cancer or disease.
Another unusual aspect of the Roundup cases is that Monsanto has not issued a recall and continues to sell the product. Presumably, people will continue to get sick from use of the product and cases will continue to be filed against Monsanto. As of now, however, these future cases are not eligible to participate in the current settlement, although it is likely that Monsanto at some point will open the settlement for “Round 2” claimants.