CHICAGO—Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel DiCello Levitt, Douglas & London, Motley Rice, and Ben Crump Law, together with other Plaintiffs’ counsel in the litigation, applaud the ruling by Judge Mary M. Rowland of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, materially denying Defendants’ motion to dismiss and granting Plaintiffs the ability to continuing prosecuting this important multidistrict litigation, In Re: Hair Relaxer Marketing Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. This MDL is a landmark case against some of the nation’s largest hair product manufacturers, including L’Oréal, SoftSheen-Carson LLC, Revlon, Inc., and others.
The Court, in rejecting Defendants’ preemption challenge and denying the vast majority of Defendants’ motion to dismiss, has clearly and forcefully vested Plaintiff’s counsel with the ability and opportunity to continue taking a stand for thousands of primarily Black and Brown women across the United States who contracted uterine, ovarian, and endometrial cancer as a result of using Defendants’ hair relaxer products.
The first case comprising this mass tort litigation was filed in October 2022, by Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann—co-chair of DiCello Levitt’s Mass Tort Practice and the managing partner of the firm’s Birmingham, Alabama office—after the National Cancer Institute published a study by the National Institute of Health that found women who used chemical hair straightening products four or more times per year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer as those who didn’t use these hair relaxer products. Fu is joined as Co-Lead Counsel by Ben Crump of the Ben Crump Law Firm, Fidelma Fitzpatrick of Motley Rice LLC, and Michael A. London of Douglas & London PC.
“We are grateful that the court sided with Plaintiffs’ counsel with respect to the key components of our Master Complaint, including our claims for negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and unjust enrichment. We allege in our litigation what Defendants have known for years: that these companies’ products kill Black and Brown women and that these companies, by putting profits over ethics, have put tens of thousands of women’s lives at risk. We look forward to continuing prosecuting our claims in court and obtaining justice for these women so grievously injured by these companies’ toxic products. These women matter,” Fu said.
“DiCello Levitt’s Product Liability Practice Group—with Fu as team lead—made history by originating this case. We look forward to finally bringing economic justice to the many women who have been so tragically harmed by these poisonous products,” DiCello Levitt Co-Founding Partner Mark DiCello said.
About DiCello Levitt
At DiCello Levitt, we’re dedicated to achieving justice for our clients through mass tort, class action, securities, financial services, antitrust, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, and civil and human rights litigation. Our lawyers are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases—whether by trial, settlement, or otherwise—for people who have suffered harm, global corporations that have sustained significant economic losses, and public clients seeking to protect their citizens’ rights and interests. Every day, we put our reputations—and our capital—on the line for our clients.
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