Welcome to Law.com Class Actions: Critical Mass, a weekly briefing for class action and mass tort attorneys. A bankruptcy judge sided with Johnson & Johnson's LTL Management about how to proceed with the talc case. The day after the Chapter 11 filing over 3M's combat earplugs, a federal judge in the multidistrict litigation had a lot of questions. Find how who is representing Target in cases alleging prenatal acetaminophen use is linked to ADHD and autism.

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LESSONS: "Don't speak so much. Empathize, Kenneth Feinberg said.

Ken Feinberg's New Role: Estimate Talc Claims

Two days after a hearing that stretched beyond five hours, a bankruptcy judge on July 28 sided with Johnson & Johnson's LTL Management in deciding how to proceed with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which aims to resolve at least 38,000 lawsuits filed by ovarian cancer and mesothelioma victims. New Jersey Chief Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan agreed that a so-called estimation hearing to provide an aggregate value of the talc claims would be the best path forward. He rejected a competing proposal from the talc claimants committee to lift the automatic stay, allowing for some trials.