StoneTurn was retained by the Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg, the court-appointed estimation expert in the LTL Management bankruptcy related to J&J talc Mass Tort litigations.

Mr. Feinberg — a nationally known mediator who has worked on several asbestos mass tort cases and was also the Special Master for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund — retained StoneTurn as an independent claims estimation consultant. Mr. Feinberg, serving as the Court’s expert, was directed by the Court to submit a report estimating the current and future volume and value of the talc claims, for consideration by the parties and the court. The matter arose after LTL filed for Chapter 11 protection once it split off from J&J as part of a divisional merger transaction (“Texas Two Step”) by which LTL assumed liability arising from allegations that J&J’s talc products contained cancer-causing asbestos and received certain assets.

In this role, StoneTurn assisted Mr. Feinberg in assessing the volume and value of current claims and projecting future claims related to allegations that J&J’s talc products cause Ovarian cancer and Mesothelioma. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael B. Kaplan ordered an accelerated estimation process designed to provide guidance on the volume and value of the thousands of talc claims asserted against LTL and J&J, saying at the time that fairness and efficiency would be best served by running that process. The bankruptcy case is In re: LTL Management LLC, case number 3:21-bk-30589, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

StoneTurn played a unique role in this bankruptcy in that we were retained as consultant/expert to a neutral estimator.

The bankruptcy was overturned on January 30, 2023 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Kaplan effectively terminated the retention of the estimator and his professionals on March 23, 2023.