Dallas City Wire

Yaël Ossowski, the deputy director for the Consumer Choice Center (CCC), said consumers who have been harmed by products "should not have their rights limited" in a lawsuit case because lawyers are holding out for a larger payday.

"Consumers who were affected deserve to be heard and to have their cases justly administered," Ossowski said in an August 2 Op-Ed posted to Dallas Express. "If they are offered a deal, they should not have their rights limited simply because a larger payday could hypothetically be on the horizon."

"Consumers harmed by-products should have the ability to not only be heard in court but to participate in a fair, transparent process where they can seek redress," he said. "Allowing the multi-year litigation process to continue without giving clients and consumers affected the option to settle now not only risks leaving thousands without proper justice, it also undermines the rule of law which is meant to protect Americans when we need it most."

Ossowski wrote in light of the decisions seemingly made in a litigation case against Johnson and Johnson for harm caused by trace amounts of asbestos in their baby powder products. LTL Management, J&J’s Texas-based subsidiary, has been fighting over 61,000 cases of consumers claiming these products caused them harm. 

These cases have been some of the largest and most expensive of their kind, Ossowski reported. He also noted that attorney fees for these cases can be as high as a third of the final payout. 

"In the case of Johnson & Johnson, the company has offered multiple options to claimants looking to settle out of court rather than continue costly legal battles that could result in fewer rewards for those harmed," he wrote in the article. "The latest settlement would be a combined $6.5 billion paid out over 25 years to those who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer," but due to large tort firms having interest in these payouts, the cases have continued.  

"Over the last decade, mass tort lawsuits have exploded in the U.S., with many cases being brought against companies operating in the healthcare sector,” Kasia Mulligan, national spokesperson for Patients Come First (PCF) said in a column on RealClearPolicy. “According to a Wall Street Journal news report, the number of federal civil cases increased almost a quarter from the year prior.”

“Litigation of this nature has sometimes served to hold bad actors accountable and ensure just compensation for victims,” she said. “However, the unfortunate reality is that the recent surge has largely been driven by frivolous lawsuits, with some private-equity firms and hedge funds joining in on the action, loaning out billions to law firms to fund litigation and for ad time with the expectation of a return on their investments. While these cases may intend to benefit patients, they end up hindering progress, causing patients to ultimately bear the brunt of lost innovation."

Mulligan explains that unnecessary litigation can block the research and implementation of new methods and treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s and different cancers. It also causes a drain on hospital or research facility’s finances, leaving them less able to pursue research opportunities for patient treatments. 

Ossowski is the deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center, an advocacy org focused on improving consumer experiences across multiple Industries. He is also a visiting fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. He studied at both Concordia University in Montréal and the University of Vienna, and received a Master's degree at the CEVRO Institute in Prague. Ossowski was born in Québec and grew up in North Carolina.