SACRAMENTO – Legally besieged Bayer AG recently stated that it is projecting an escalation in plaintiffs seeking to sue the company over its herbicide Roundup.
Bayer said the number of plaintiffs as of July 2019 was 18,400, reported Fortune, and that lawyers will be searching for additional clients since settlement talks have already begun. Bloomberg indicated on Oct. 30 that there are now 42,700 plaintiffs involved in Roundup litigation.
The Southern California Record has previously reported that commercials have aired on television in Northern California that offer legal advice to Roundup users and advise viewers to "fight for the compensation that you deserve."
“Many plaintiffs’ attorneys have turned to TV and social-media advertising as a tactic to solicit potential victims for large and costly lawsuits,” Kyla Christoffersen-Powell, president and CEO of the Civil Justice Association of California, previously told the Southern California Record. “As this trend progresses, we see these advertisements becoming more aggressive and greatly exaggerating the facts.”
A substantial rise in plaintiffs increases the pressure to settle the mounting litigation with Roundup cases, costing Bayer around $30 billion in market value, Fortune reported. The company has stated that the volume of plaintiffs is not a reflection of the validity of the cases.
The German multinational company, which acquired Monsanto in a $63 billion takeover in 2018, is contemplating a global settlement that will most likely cost billions. Fortune also reported that analysts estimate that settling all the U.S. lawsuits could cost Bayer between $2.5 billion and $20 billion, and that a few of its investors believe any global settlement under $10 billion would be acceptable.
Mass Tort Services-owned Lawsuit Settlement News has reported that more than 13,000 U.S. plaintiffs have filed suit against Monsanto after being afflicted with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma allegedly due to Roundup exposure, and U.S. Right to Know reports more than 18,000. Four of these plaintiffs have already won suits against the Roundup manufacturer with jury awards exceeding $2 billion.