U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez for the Southern District of Texas. Courtesy photoJudge Skips Over Sanctions in Talc Bankruptcy: 'That’s A No'
At a Tuesday hearing, however, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, in the Southern District of Texas, ordered Beasley Allen and the Smith Law Firm to produce example communications demonstrating how their 11,000 clients voted for or against Johnson & Johnson's talc bankruptcy plan.
November 26, 2024 at 04:25 PM
5 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Red River Talc, the debtor, moved to sanction Beasley Allen's Andy Birchfield after he failed to appear for a Nov. 18 deposition.
- 'I know what I’m asking for is a lot of work,' Lopez said of his order. 'But I believe people should get started with as soon as possible.'
- In a Nov. 21 statement, the newly formed Official Committee of Talc Claimants, or TCC, said the parties had negotiated some revisions to the plan to garner more support.
A bankruptcy judge in Texas refused to take up possible sanctions against plaintiff's attorney Andy Birchfield but ordered that his firm, Beasley Allen, produce communications that show how its talc clients voted on Johnson & Johnson’s proposed $10 billion prepackaged plan.
Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Red River Talc, which filed the Chapter 11 case, moved to sanction Birchfield, a principal in Montgomery, Alabama, after he failed to appear for a Nov. 18 deposition. Birchfield is a member of the Coalition of Counsel for Justice for Talc Claimants, which has challenged Johnson & Johnson’s claim that it got 83% of talc claimants to support its plan. In court documents, coalition lawyer Adam Silverstein, of Otterbourg in New York, had called the sanctions motion “overreaching and unwarranted” given that Birchfield had moved to quash his deposition and provided alternate dates to Red River Talc.
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