Cancer Victim’s Atty Takes Heat From Judge In Monsanto MDL
Law360 | By Dorothy Atkins
In a heated exchange Monday, a California federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation over claims that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller causes cancer questioned whether a plaintiff’s attorney was working in the best interest of his client, saying a proposed jury instruction appeared to advantage litigants in future cases, but not his client.
During a hearing in San Francisco, plaintiff’s attorney Brent Wisner of Baum Hedlund Aristei Goldman PC argued in favor of asking the jury two questions during the first phase of a trial to determine whether Monsanto’s herbicides caused Edward Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. One question asked jurors to decide if Monsanto’s Roundup is “capable” of causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the other asked them to determine if Monsanto’s Roundup is a “substantial factor” in causing plaintiff Hardeman’s NHL…