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If you or a family member has a case in Talc, Roundup, Hernia Mesh, or the social media litigation, you’ve probably heard a settlement number in the news and wondered what it actually means for you. On this episode of Climate Change Environment Science & the Law with Gregg Goldfarb, host Gregg Goldfarb sits down with Steven Smith, Vice President of Broughton Partners, to unpack four major mass tort campaigns that are all reaching critical moments at once.

Smith explains why J&J’s $5.5 billion Talc settlement is really a floor, not a ceiling — with total payouts from this first wave expected closer to $8 billion, and no cap on what the company pays over time. He breaks down why a recent Supreme Court preemption ruling gutted the “failure to warn” claims in the Roundup litigation, while “design defect” claims may survive, and why the proposed class action’s roughly $50,000 average case value has some claimants better off staying out of it. On Hernia Mesh, he details the split between Bard (which resolved lower-value cases early while holding back its biggest claims for a separate, stricter fund) and Covidien, where a recent verdict topped $66 million. And on social media, he walks through how Meta’s $16.68 billion settlement with 29 state attorneys general is actually a step toward compensating individual families, not the end of the road.

Throughout, Smith and Goldfarb stress that “qualified” is doing a lot of work in every one of these settlements — and that claimants should be talking to their own firm about where their specific case stands before assuming a headline number applies to them.

What You’ll Learn

  • Why J&J’s $5.5B Talc settlement is a floor, not a final number

  • What “qualified” actually means — and why it changes as a case matures

  • How the Supreme Court’s preemption ruling reshaped the Roundup litigation

  • Why some Roundup claimants may be better off outside the class action

  • How Bard and Covidien ended up handling hernia mesh cases so differently

  • What the $66 million Covidien verdict signals for pending cases

  • Why Meta’s $17B settlement is with states, not the injured kids themselves

  • How to tell if your case is being handled by the right firm

  • What “opting out” of a settlement means, and when it makes sense

 

Time Stamps:

0:00 – Cold open: $17 billion Meta settlement 0:27 – Intro: Steven Smith joins to break down mass tort settlements 1:22 – Talc / Johnson & Johnson (baby powder settlement, $5.5B+) 12:02 – Roundup (Bayer, Supreme Court ruling, class action) 17:37 – Hernia Mesh (Bard, Covidien, $66M verdict) 22:38 – Social Media (Meta, TikTok, Snapchat — $17B settlement explained)

 

 Steven Smith is Vice President of Broughton Partners, a mass tort marketing and consulting firm, where he has spent nearly 20 years advising law firms and claimants across major litigations including Talc, Roundup, Hernia Mesh, Social Media, Camp Lejeune, PFAS, NEC, and Depo-Provera. Known industry-wide as “The Mass Tort Mentor,” he works to help claimants get connected with qualified representation and to help law firms navigate complex, evolving litigation. 

 

Contact / Follow Stephen Smith: 

Firm: https://www.broughtonpartners.com/

Phone: 954-224-1733 

Email: steve@broughtonpartners.com

 

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