A Case Study

For nearly a decade, a national plaintiffs’ firm targeted our industrial client with hundreds of questionable cancer exposure lawsuits across the country. By executing a disciplined, evidence-driven defense strategy, MGS helped bring the litigation campaign to an end—without succumbing to the pressure to settle baseless claims.

Situation

National plaintiff’s law firm began filing individual lawsuits against MGS client and others in its industry
Single-defendant complaints alleged plaintiffs contracted a variety of types of cancer from exposure to various potentially toxic materials including asbestos and diesel exhaust
Plaintiff’s firm filed hundreds of cases nationwide focusing on “Judicial Hellhole” jurisdictions including Cook County, Illinois

Key Facts

Alleged exposures occurred long before cancer diagnoses and lawsuits – usually between the 1960s and 2000s
Limited employment records or testimony substantiating claim of exposure to the alleged materials
Questionable scientific evidence of causation between the subject cancer and exposure to the alleged materials
Commonly long delay between diagnosis and filing of lawsuit
Plaintiffs used a small circle of medical and industrial hygiene experts with similar reports
Plaintiffs’ business model anticipated defendants settling high volume of questionable claims to avoid litigation costs

Our Approach

We established with our client a strategy of vigorously defending all claims
We engaged in aggressive early discovery and motion practice to force each plaintiff to identify the specific materials they were exposed to, the evidence of exposure, and the medical evidence that exposure to those materials could cause the plaintiff’s type of cancer
We vigorously contested plaintiffs’ experts’ opinions on both exposure and medical causation, including motions to bar experts and motions for summary judgment based on lack of causation
We engaged top-tier experts capable of demonstrating the flaws in the methodologies employed by plaintiffs’ experts and explaining that scientific literature did not support the claim
We investigated and pursued statute of limitations defenses based on plaintiffs’ failure to reasonably investigate the cause of their cancer after diagnosis
We tried cases to Cook County juries
In the very few cases where there was credible evidence of meaningful exposure to a specific material and medical literature supporting causation between the exposure and the plaintiff’s type of cancer, our client settled at reasonable amounts

Results

MGS resolved all cases by voluntary or involuntary dismissal, summary judgment and jury verdict
MGS client reached resolution of all pending claims brought nationally by the plaintiffs’ law firm and was advised that the firm does not intend to pursue similar claims against the client in the future

Keys to Success

We coordinated closely with our client’s claims team to execute their decision to defend these questionable lawsuits and put an end to future filings – no matter how long it took
We formulated a complete case strategy and stuck to it through pleading, discovery and settlement stages – in case after case until we achieved the client’s objective - making the entire lot of questionable cases go away

MGS Helps Industrial Client End Nearly Decade-Long Series of Dubious Exposure Cases