Judge Indicates 40 Hair Relaxer Lawsuits Over Uterine Cancer, Endometrial Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Will Be Selected for Early Trial Program

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all hair relaxer lawsuits pending in the federal court system has called for the parties to select a total of 40 bellwether claims, which will be prepared for a series of early trial dates to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that may be repeated throughout the litigation.

The cases will be selected from over 6,500 uterine cancer lawsuits, endometrial cancer lawsuits and ovarian cancer lawsuits brought by former users of popular hair relaxer products, including Just For Me, Dark & Lovely, Optimum and others.

Each of the claims raise similar allegations that L’Oreal and other manufacturers have provided false and misleading information for African American women for decades, failing to disclose the side effects they may experience from the endocrine disrupting chemicals contained in hair straightening products.

The litigation emerged after the publication of a study in October 2022, which highlighted a link between hair relaxers and cancer, finding that women who regularly used the products face a 156% increased risk of uterine cancer compared to women who did not use them. Other studies have also found that exposure to the chemical hair straighteners may cause ovarian cancer, as well as other injuries.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints brought throughout the federal court system, the lawsuits are currently centralized as a part of a hair relaxer lawsuit MDL (multidistrict litigation) under U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland in the Northern District of Illinois, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Early in the litigation, Judge Rowland determined that a series of bellwether test trials will be held to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to the claims, and promote potential hair relaxer settlement agreements between the parties. However, plaintiffs and defendants have been unable to agree on a structure for selecting a group of representative claims.

In November 2023, Judge Rowland initially asked the parties to jointly propose hair relaxer lawsuit bellwether trial plans, outlining a process for selecting a group of representative cases to go through case-specific discovery in preparation for early trial dates. However, after the hair relaxer lawyers were unable to agree on a selection process, they turned in competing proposals in November 2024.

Judge Calls for Large Hair Relaxer Bellwether Pool

Originally, the parties’ plans called for each side to select eight cases each to serve as the initial bellwether pool, which would then go through case-specific discovery, resulting in five of the 16 total cases being selected for trial. However, after reviewing the proposals and hearing arguments from both sides twice last month, Judge Rowland issued a memorandum opinion and order (PDF) on January 31, indicating plaintiffs and defendants should select a much larger bellwether pool of 20 cases each, for a total bellwether pool of 40 trial cases.

“Preparing only five cases for trial runs the risk of these cases resolving short of trial or being subject to a dispositive motion and, thus, not being available to serve as representative bellwether cases. This is not an opportunity for one side’s advocacy to win the day and put forward their strongest cases, instead the parties should aim to select and try representative cases,” Judge Rowland wrote. “Thus, the parties are required to each select twenty (20) case for bellwether discovery with up to twelve (12) total cases ultimately selected for the trial pool.”

In addition, Judge Rowland called on the parties to limit those selections to cases involving reproductive cancer injuries, including uterine cancer, ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. However, other injuries can be included in those cases, if the plaintiff also has one of those three cancer diagnoses, she determined.

“From the early stages of this litigation, the parties have agreed on the utility of bellwether trials to evaluate the thousands of cases in this MDL and to drive global resolution,” said Judge Rowland in the memorandum. “The aim of the bellwether process is to garner information useful for the parties to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments and evidence, as well as to assess the risks and costs of litigation. To achieve these goals, the results of the bellwether trials must be reasonably representative of all the cases int the MDL.”

Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Bellwether Selection Deadlines

The hair relaxer bellwether cases must be selected from those with Short Form Complaints filed and served by February 1, 2024, which includes about 5,230 of the claims pending in the MDL, according to the order. However, Judge Rowland indicates the pool of cases will be further limited to plaintiffs who have submitted substantially complete Plaintiff Fact Sheets by February 28, 2025.

The Court has set a deadline of April 30 for the parties to submit and exchange their lists of initial bellwether discovery cases, noting that the date is firm, and no extensions will be granted.

The order includes a timeline for bellwether discovery that calls for the parties to file a joint status report identifying the 40 initial discovery cases by May 9, with the close of case-specific fact discovery scheduled for February 16, 2026.

Issues regarding general causation as to whether plaintiffs can prove the hair relaxer products can cause reproductive cancer, are expected to last until January 6, 2027, which suggests the earliest a first bellwether trial could go before a jury would be mid-to-late 2027.

Judge Rowland has tasked the parties with filing a joint proposed case management order on bellwether selection and procedures, that incorporate the rulings from this order, by February 21.

While the outcome of these early trials will not be binding on other women presenting a claim, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation, and may have a substantial impact on the timing and average amounts of any hair relaxer settlements offered to women diagnosed with uterine cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer in future years. However, if no settlement agreement is reached, each claim will be remanded back to various different U.S. District Courts for individual trials in the coming years.