Mass Tort Litigation: Ongoing Coverage of Major Mass Tort Cases
411 Press tracks the major active mass tort litigations as ongoing news beats. Nearly 200,000 cases pending across 159 active federal MDLs as of May 2026.
By 411 Press Legal DeskUpdated 8 min read
This is the 411 Press mass tort coverage index. We track major active mass torts as ongoing news beats. Last updated: May 28, 2026.
As of May 2026, the federal court system is managing 199,684 pending actions across 159 active multidistrict litigation dockets, according to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The 25 largest MDLs account for 95.2% of all pending cases.
The numbers are not the story. The story is the pattern they describe. Patients who took medications that injured them. Veterans who drank contaminated water for decades. Parents whose premature infants were harmed by formula. Families whose children were damaged by platforms designed to be addictive. The mass tort docket is where the consequences of corporate decisions accumulate.
411 Press covers the major active mass torts as news beats, not as legal information services. Each litigation listed below has a dedicated hub page tracking court actions, verdict and settlement data, and the underlying accountability story. We report what is happening as it happens. We update when JPML releases new statistics, when judges rule, when juries return verdicts, when settlement frameworks emerge.
Active Mass Tort Beats We Cover
| Litigation | MDL / Court | Pending Cases | Status | Hub |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder | MDL 2738 | 67,115 | Bankruptcy settlement attempts ongoing | Coming soon |
| Hair Relaxer Cancer Claims | MDL 3060 | 11,526 | Bellwether trials expected 2027 | Hair Relaxer |
| Proton-Pump Inhibitors | MDL 2789 | 11,322 | Settlement discussions | Coming soon |
| Ozempic / GLP-1 Medications | MDL 3094 / 3163 | 3,722+ | Science Day June 2026 | Ozempic |
| Depo-Provera | MDL 3140 | 3,769 | Fastest-growing MDL | Coming soon |
| Camp Lejeune Water Contamination | EDNC | 3,718 federal / ~407,000 admin claims | ~$571M paid of ~$795M approved, bellwether prep | Camp Lejeune |
| Bard PowerPort | MDL 3081 | 3,000+ | First bellwether trial upcoming | Coming soon |
| Social Media Addiction | MDL 3047 | 2,527 | $6M K.G.M. verdict March 2026 | Social Media |
| NEC Baby Formula | MDL 3026 | 797 (MDL) / 1,700+ total | $495M verdict upheld, bellwether July 2026 | NEC Baby Formula |
Case counts shift monthly as new plaintiffs file and some cases resolve. 411 Press updates these figures as new JPML reports publish.
What We Are Tracking on Each Beat
Ozempic / GLP-1 — MDL 3094 and MDL 3163
Two federal multidistrict litigations before U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. GI injuries and NAION vision loss. 3,636 GI cases. 86 vision loss cases. No settlements. Science Day set for June 2, 2026.
Camp Lejeune — Eastern District of North Carolina
Three decades after contaminated wells were closed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, roughly 407,000 administrative claims have been filed under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. DOJ has approved about $794.7 million in settlement offers across ~2,686 offers and paid out $570.7 million — fewer than 1% of claims resolved (as of April 13, 2026 court filing). Federal litigation moving toward bellwether prep.
Hair Relaxer — MDL 3060
11,526 women alleging chemical hair relaxer products caused uterine, ovarian, and endometrial cancer. Defendants include L'Oreal, Revlon, Namaste, Unilever, Procter & Gamble. Judge Mary M. Rowland selected all 10 bellwether cases herself. Bellwether trials expected 2027. Special Master Ellen K. Reisman facilitating settlement discussions.
Social Media Addiction — MDL 3047
2,527 cases against Meta, ByteDance, Snap, and Alphabet over platform design that allegedly harmed children's mental health. First individual jury verdict — $6 million in K.G.M. v. Meta & YouTube — returned March 25, 2026. Snap, TikTok, and YouTube settled with Breathitt County, Kentucky school district in May 2026. Meta going to trial June 12.
NEC Baby Formula — MDL 3026
797 cases in MDL 3026, over 1,700 total including state court. Four favorable plaintiff verdicts. No defense wins. Missouri Court of Appeals upheld $495M Gill v. Abbott verdict in May 2026. First federal bellwether trial — an Enfamil case — set for July 6, 2026.
Background: How Mass Tort Litigation Works
For readers who want the structural overview, here is how the federal mass tort process operates.
A mass tort is a civil action where dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people who were harmed by the same defendant bring their claims together in one coordinated proceeding. The claims share common questions — did this drug cause this injury, did this company know about the danger — but each plaintiff retains an individual case.
Most mass torts are consolidated through multidistrict litigation. MDL is a federal court procedure where similar cases filed across different states are transferred to a single judge for pretrial proceedings. The procedure prevents contradictory rulings and avoids hundreds of judges managing the same discovery process.
In an MDL, the individual case is preserved. Each plaintiff has an attorney. Each settlement is based on individual injuries, not averaged. If the case does not settle, it can be sent back to the original court for trial.
The structural distinction from class action: class actions consolidate the claims themselves into one. Mass tort consolidates the proceedings, not the claims. Mass tort settlements typically reflect individual injury severity. Class action settlements typically divide evenly across the class.
The litigation timeline follows a pattern. Cases are filed and consolidated. Discovery runs 12-24 months. The MDL judge selects bellwether cases — usually 5-20 — for full trial. Bellwether verdicts set expectations. Settlement negotiations follow. Most mass torts settle after bellwether trials establish a pattern, through a global settlement framework that sets payout ranges by injury severity.
Most mass tort lawsuits take 2-5 years from filing to payout. Some take longer. The Camp Lejeune litigation involves contamination that occurred between 1953 and 1987 — victims waited four decades for the legal framework that now allows them to file.
The Accountability Pattern
Mass torts do not appear out of nowhere. They follow a pattern.
A company sells a product. People are harmed. Evidence accumulates that the company knew — or should have known — about the danger before the harm occurred. The pattern repeats across industries and decades.
Pharmaceutical companies suppress or minimize safety data. The Ozempic litigation alleges Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly failed to adequately warn about gastroparesis and vision loss risks as adverse event reports accumulated. FDA updated labels incrementally over years while millions were prescribed the drugs.
Manufacturers market without adequate warnings. The hair relaxer litigation alleges cosmetic manufacturers sold products containing endocrine-disrupting chemicals — formaldehyde, phthalates, parabens — without warning consumers about cancer risk. A 2022 NIH study found frequent users were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.
Government entities deny and delay. Camp Lejeune's water supply was contaminated with TCE, PCE, benzene, and vinyl chloride for 34 years. Federal investigators documented the contamination by the early 1980s. It took until 2022 — the Camp Lejeune Justice Act — for victims to gain the legal right to sue.
Companies design products that predictably harm the most vulnerable. The NEC baby formula litigation alleges Abbott and Mead Johnson marketed cow's milk-based formula to NICUs despite decades of medical literature showing it increases NEC risk in premature infants. Four jury verdicts have agreed.
Platforms optimize for engagement above safety. MDL 3047 alleges Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube engineered features to maximize engagement among children, knowing the features would cause mental health harm. Internal company research documented the harm before the platforms acted on it.
The accountability question in every mass tort is the same. What did the company know. When did they know it. What did they do about it.
More Coverage
Recent 411 Press reporting on the mass tort beat:
Coverage tags: Mass Tort · MDL · JPML · Pharmaceutical Litigation · Product Liability
Browse all active lawsuits and mass tort litigation tracked by 411 Press.
Our Editorial Approach
411 Press mass tort coverage is built on primary sources: court dockets, MDL filings, JPML statistical reports, FDA databases, peer-reviewed medical research, and published legal analyses. We cite our sources so readers can verify the information.
We update case data as new JPML reports and court filings become available. When projected settlement ranges are discussed, we distinguish between verified verdict data and projected ranges based on legal analysis, and we label projections as such.
For our full methodology, see our editorial standards.
411 Press monitors JPML reports and MDL dockets and publishes updates as developments occur.
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