Lawsuit Information Center
In this post, our Roundup lawyers will give you:
- an update on where things stand in the Roundup class action lawsuit in May 2025
- the likely direction the Roundup litigation will take moving forward and
- the expected future settlement amounts in the Bayer Roundup lawsuit (Phase 2)
67,000 Roundup Cases Left… and Counting
As of May 2025, Monsanto has reached settlement agreements in nearly 100,000 Roundup lawsuits, paying approximately $11 billion. Bayer achieved this through large-scale block settlements with law firms handling high volumes of claims, along with pre-trial resolutions in individual cases.
Although these settlements account for about two-thirds of the total, Monsanto estimates that roughly 67,000 active Roundup lawsuits are still pending. The majority of these cases are now in state courts across the country, though more than 4,000 remain consolidated in the federal MDL in California.
New weedkiller lawsuits continue to be filed on a regular basis. Our legal team hears daily from individuals recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after years of using Roundup. If you believe you may have a claim, contact us directly through our online form or by calling 800-553-8082.
🔍 Roundup Lawsuit at a Glance
⚖️ Settlements to Date: Nearly 100,000 cases resolved for over $11 billion
🧱New Settlement: Monsanto just settled a case during a trial in St. Louis County
📄New Report: New Make America Healthy Again report names Roundup as a risk to children
📋 Active Lawsuits: About 67,000 cases still pending as of June 2025
🏛️ Court Trends: Recent jury verdicts of $175M, $332M, $2.25B, and $2.1B
💣 Pressure: Bayer faces mounting financial pressure as future trials stack up.
Jury awards in 2023 and 2024 have already surpassed $3 billion combined
No indication that jurors are growing more sympathetic to the defense
Bayer is threatening bankruptcy, which might be more than an idle threat
There is no update on a Roundup settlement. Some think we are close. Others say no.
🕒 Filing Deadline: State deadlines vary — some victims have already missed the deadline.
‣ Some victims think they are out of time, and they are not
📈 What to Expect: Bayer is quietly negotiating behind the scenes, but still hoping the Supreme Court will step in
Roundup Lawsuit Updates and News
It has been a long and often frustrating road for victims of Roundup exposure. What began with a single California jury handing down a $289 million verdict seven years ago has evolved into one of the most significant product liability lawsuits in U.S. history. Bayer has spent the years since trying to contain the fallout. The company has been busy. It has fought thousands of cases in court, secured multi-billion-dollar settlements, and advanced legal theories aimed at shielding it from future claims.
Below is a detailed timeline of verdicts, appeals, and legal developments.
July 24, 2025 – New Jersey Supreme Court Grants Multicounty Litigation for Roundup Lawsuits
The New Jersey Supreme Court has approved the creation of a multicounty litigation (MCL) docket for personal injury claims alleging that Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other health issues. The order assigns all current and future Roundup-related cases in the state to Judge Gregg A. Padovano in Bergen County for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
This decision comes after plaintiffs renewed their request in February 2025, citing 36 active cases across eight counties and predicting the case count would exceed 100. The court had previously denied MCL status in 2024 due to a lower number of filings. Plaintiffs argued that centralization would reduce duplicative discovery and prevent inconsistent rulings. Monsanto opposed the motion again, maintaining the volume did not justify consolidation.
This decision to consolidate Roundup cases into a multicounty litigation docket is not a huge deal, but it adds more pressure on Bayer to move toward a global settlement (or at least speed up the process of settling more lawsuits to reduce the inventory).
July 22, 2025 – U.S. Supreme Court to Weigh In on Roundup Preemption Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider a petition for certiorari in Durnell v. Monsanto, a case that could have sweeping implications for Roundup litigation nationwide. At the heart of the case is whether federal law—specifically the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)—preempts state-based failure-to-warn claims.
Monsanto argues that because the EPA has approved glyphosate-based product labels without cancer warnings, plaintiffs cannot sue under state law for failure to include such warnings. But lower courts are divided. The Ninth Circuit has allowed these claims to proceed, while the Eleventh Circuit has taken the opposite view—creating a circuit split the Supreme Court may now resolve.
The Court is expected to announce whether it will grant certiorari following its June 26, 2025, conference. If it takes the case, the justices would likely hear arguments during the 2025–2026 term.
For plaintiffs and their lawyers, this is a critical juncture. A ruling against Monsanto would cement the ability of victims to hold the company accountable under state tort law, regardless of federal regulatory silence. A ruling in Monsanto’s favor could gut thousands of Roundup lawsuits pending across the country.
Either way, the Supreme Court’s involvement underscores the high stakes—and raises pressure on Bayer to seriously consider a global resolution before the legal landscape shifts again.
June 17, 2025 – New Study on Glyphosate
A major new two-year study published in Environmental Health finds that glyphosate causes multiple types of cancer in rats, including leukemia, even at doses regulators consider “safe.”
The study, led by Italy’s Ramazzini Institute with participation from institutions like Boston College and Mount Sinai, exposed rats to glyphosate through drinking water starting in the womb. Over 1,000 rats were tracked. All treated groups showed increased tumor rates compared to controls, and many of the cancers were rare for this breed.
Key findings:
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Glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides both led to benign and malignant tumors.
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Leukemia was a key concern, especially following prenatal exposure.
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The effects appeared even at doses below or equal to the current EU safety limits.
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Researchers say the co-formulants in herbicide products may enhance glyphosate’s carcinogenic effects.
So this study adds to a growing body of science connecting glyphosate exposure to cancer and other health issues, including liver, reproductive, and metabolic disorders.
June 16, 2025 – Settlement in Roundup Trial
Monsanto has reached a settlement in the Roundup cancer lawsuit brought by a Texas man, resolving the case shortly before closing arguments were set to begin. The case, Grantges v. Monsanto, was tried in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
This is a smart move for Monsanto, which really needs to avoid taking more blockbuster verdicts.
June 13, 2025 – Punitive Damage Award Stricken by Florida Court
In a troubling decision, an intermediate appellate court has blocked punitive damages in a Roundup cancer case, stripping a California plaintiff of the $75 million awarded by the jury that heard the evidence in the case.
The plaintiff, who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after long-term use of Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide, had convinced the jury that Monsanto acted with conscious disregard for human safety. But the appellate court held that the punitive award was preempted by federal law, pointing to the EPA’s conclusion that glyphosate is “not likely” to be carcinogenic. This ruling guts the jury’s ability to punish corporate misconduct, even in the face of overwhelming internal evidence showing Monsanto knew about glyphosate’s cancer risks and deliberately chose not to warn the public.
The EPA’s regulatory opinion, which is likely to change next year, is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, especially given that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen, and juries have repeatedly found Monsanto’s conduct reprehensible. Federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling. The jury looked at Monsanto’s internal documents that have long offended juries, ghostwritten studies, suppression of safety concerns, and manipulation of regulators, and made its decision accordingly.
June 6, 2025 – St. Louis County Trial
The Grantges v. Monsanto cancer trial is currently on Day 10 in St. Louis County Circuit Court. Plaintiff is still presenting his case against Monsanto Co., alleging that his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was caused by Roundup exposure. The plaintiffs called Donna Farmer and the plaintiff this week.
Donna Farmer is a Monsanto toxicologist and the lead spokesperson for the company on the safety of Roundup. She concedes in a 2009 internal email that “you cannot say that Roundup does not cause cancer,” acknowledging that Monsanto had not conducted carcinogenicity studies on the full Roundup formulation. Dr. Farmer also admits to editing scientific articles without being listed as an author and states that it was standard practice for Monsanto to contribute content to publications authored by seemingly independent scientists.
May 27, 2025 – $611 Million Affirmed
In a big win for victims, a Missouri appellate court on May 27, 2025, affirmed a $611 million verdict against Monsanto, holding the company accountable for exposing consumers to Roundup, a product that juries are now repeatedly finding causes cancer. The original jury award totaled $1.56 billion, but was trimmed by the trial judge. Still, the appellate court’s decision keeps a massive punitive award intact against Bayer’s Monsanto for knowingly selling a carcinogenic product without warning.
The plaintiffs, each diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, argued that Monsanto knew for years about the dangers of glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient, yet refused to warn the public or pull the product. The court flatly rejected Monsanto’s claims that expert testimony about EPA regulatory failures was unfair (a huge issue in this litigation) or that the damages were too high.
May 22, 2025 – Make American Health Again Report on Roundup
The MAHA report, released by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., emphasizes the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as a potential contributor to chronic illnesses in children. The report warns that the primary route of exposure to glyphosate is through food, underscoring concerns that residues from widespread agricultural use may be making their way into the American diet. It cites glyphosate as one of two herbicides (alongside atrazine) flagged for an updated federal safety assessment, which is expected to be completed in 2026.
While the report flags glyphosate as a potential health risk due to widespread dietary exposure, it does not reference any specific diseases, such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which, of course, is the center of this litigation. So the Bayer lobbyists got at least one win.
May 19, 2025 – Bankruptcy for Bayer?
Bayer is reportedly considering a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for its Monsanto subsidiary, a move that would push all current and future Roundup cancer lawsuits into the bankruptcy system. According to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, this strategy is gaining traction inside Bayer after repeated trial losses and over $10 billion already paid to settle claims that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
There are two very different ways to interpret this. On one hand, Bayer cannot pay the’ full and fair value of these lawsuits. The company’s market cap in 2025 has collapsed to roughly $25.65 billion, less than half of the $63 billion it spent to acquire Monsanto in 2018.
If you do the math, $25.65 billion divided by 70,000 potential plaintiffs comes out to under $400,000 per case — and that assumes every dollar of market value goes to claimants, which it will not. From Bayer’s perspective, you can see why they would roll the dice on a long-shot appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court instead of trying to settle these cases at those kinds of numbers. So while plaintiffs understandably do not want to hear this, getting an average payout of even $100,000 per case in a global settlement may be difficult given the scope of the liabilities and the financial strain Bayer is already under, unless the plan is just to litigate Bayer into bankruptcy.
On the other hand, this may be less about what Bayer can afford and more about what it wants to pay. Like Johnson & Johnson and 3M before it, Bayer seems to be following a familiar corporate playbook — using the specter of bankruptcy to force a discount on settlement payouts. But unlike J&J’s “Texas Two-Step,” Bayer is not dumping its liabilities into a shell company. This is more akin to what happened in the Exactech litigation, where the weight of the lawsuits pulled the company itself into bankruptcy.
May 9, 2025 – Caranci Verdict Affirmed
Monsanto failed to overturn a $175 million verdict awarded to 83-year-old Ernest Caranci, who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after decades of using Roundup. The October 2023 Philadelphia jury verdict included $150 million in punitive damages. On May 8, 2025, the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the verdict, rejecting Monsanto’s appeal and affirming that the jury’s decision was supported by scientific evidence and legal procedure. This affirms the significant verdict that triggered Phase II of the Bayer glyphosate litigation for plaintiffs, following a string of defense verdicts.
May 2, 2025 – MDL Case Count Update
Roundup filings are holding steady, with 4,432 cases now pending in the federal MDL before Judge Vince Chhabria. That is a very slight increase from 4,415 last month. We have said this what feels like 1,000 times, but most of the action remains in state court, where recent verdicts have fueled continued interest in the glyphosate-cancer claims. We think you will see more of these lawsuits settle as the year progresses.
April 6, 2025 – Supreme Court Appeal
Bayer is trying again to get the Supreme Court to block Roundup cancer lawsuits, arguing that federal law trumps state warnings because the EPA doesn’t require a cancer label. But the Supreme Court already rejected this same argument in 202. Not much has changed since. Just because the EPA has not acted does not mean Bayer is off the hook—state juries are still siding with plaintiffs, and the chances of the court intervening now are still relatively slim.
March 23, 2025 – Jury Hammers Bayer with $2.1 Billion Roundup Verdict in Georgia
On Friday, a Georgia jury sent another loud and clear message to Bayer, ordering the company to pay $2.1 billion to a plaintiff who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Roundup. The staggering award includes $65 million in compensatory damages and an eye-watering $2 billion in punitive damages—a clear rebuke of Bayer’s continued refusal to take responsibility for the dangers of glyphosate.
Bayer has rolled out the same tired argument that the verdict contradicts scientific evidence and regulatory consensus—a line that it really has to retire. The company will likely try to slash the damages on appeal, as it has done in other cases, where some original jury awards were reduced by 90% or more. But the sheer size of this verdict underscores the risk Bayer continues to take by fighting these cases instead of settling them.
This is the latest major courtroom loss for Bayer, which is drowning in Roundup litigation. Despite paying $10 billion to settle past claims, the company still faces over 60,000 active lawsuits, many of which are in state courts, where juries have consistently delivered massive verdicts in favor of plaintiffs. Meanwhile, Bayer has set aside only $5.9 billion for future Roundup settlements—an amount that now looks laughably insufficient.
This verdict also comes at a critical time for Bayer, which is losing in court and in the court of public opinion. The company is already lobbying Congress for immunity from Roundup lawsuits, warning lawmakers that it may withdraw the product from the U.S. market if litigation costs continue to escalate. But these hollow threats aren’t stopping juries from punishing Bayer for choosing to fight rather than fairly compensate victims.
With another multi-billion-dollar verdict on the books, Bayer’s strategy looks increasingly reckless. This case should serve as a wake-up call: if the company continues to gamble with jury trials, it will dig a deeper and deeper hole.
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March 19, 2025 – Push for Roundup Consolidation in New Jersey
A second request to centralize lawsuits against Monsanto and Bayer over Roundup exposure has been submitted to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Plaintiffs in 36 cases across eight jurisdictions seek to consolidate their cases in Atlantic County Superior Court, arguing that centralization would improve judicial efficiency, streamline discovery, and prevent inconsistent rulings.
Currently, 41 cases are pending in New Jersey, with plaintiffs asserting that Roundup exposure led to serious health conditions, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The plaintiffs anticipate that if their request is approved, the total number of cases could exceed 100. The New Jersey Supreme Court previously denied a similar request in June due to an insufficient number of cases. Monsanto has opposed the renewed bid, maintaining that the number of claims does not justify multicounty litigation.
March 11, 2025 – Bayer “Threatens” to Take Roundup Off the Market
Bayer is telling Congress it may stop selling Roundup in the U.S. Bayer is lobbying lawmakers for legal immunity, arguing that federal EPA approval should block injured plaintiffs from suing under state laws. Meanwhile, 67,000 more lawsuits remain unresolved, and countless other individuals may have been harmed by prolonged exposure to Roundup.
Rather than taking responsibility for the devastating effects of glyphosate, Bayer is doubling down on corporate defense strategies, petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court again, and seeking legislative protection. It has not yet made good on its veiled threat to pull Roundup from the U.S. market, but if it ever does, it will only be because litigation has made it too costly to continue profiting from a dangerous product.
March 10, 2025 – Selling Stock to Pay Roundup Settlements
Bayer is attempting to raise billions of dollars by seeking permission from its shareholders to issue additional stock. This move highlights the significant financial challenges the company is facing due to the numerous lawsuits that remain pending. The announcement caused Bayer’s stock to drop by 10%, further increasing investors’ concerns about the company’s future. It is hard to understand why this would tank the stock. It is not as if this was big news, Bayer would have to find the money somewhere to fund settlements.
January 30, 2025 – New Study on Birth Weight and Roundup
January 29, 2025 – RFK, Jr.
January 28, 2025 – Roundup Settlement Rumors
December 8, 2024 – Mistrial in Chicago
The plaintiffs filed a motion for mistrial following the defense’s blatant attempt to introduce an alcohol-related criminal charge involving the plaintiff, arguing that it was entirely irrelevant to the case and served only to unfairly prejudice the jury. This kind of evidence is so out of context that it becomes impossible to put the genie back in the bottle with a curative instruction. Monsanto’s lawyers know better. Any law student who has taken an evidence class understands that such questioning is not admissible.
November 20, 2024 – RFK Jr. and Roundup
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a vocal critic of Roundup. In 2018, he was involved with the legal team representing Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who alleged that prolonged exposure to Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Johnson’s case is widely regarded as the starting point for this litigation. A jury awarded Johnson $289 million, finding that Monsanto acted with “malice and oppression” by failing to warn consumers about the potential health risks of its product.
After the verdict, Kennedy remarked, “This jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and did it with reckless disregard for human life.” He called the decision a strong message to Monsanto’s boardroom. You like him or hate him. But Kennedy is clearly on the right side of this issue. (Here is a Facebook post from him. )
If Kennedy is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, his leadership could meaningfully influence the Roundup litigation. True to his history, he is likely to advocate for stricter oversight of herbicides and pesticides, potentially pushing federal agencies like the EPA or FDA to re-evaluate the safety of glyphosate. Any regulatory action questioning or limiting glyphosate’s use could strengthen plaintiffs’ claims, supporting arguments that Roundup is hazardous and inadequately regulated.
Such a shift in regulatory and political climate—especially under a conservative administration—might force Bayer to do a reset on its jumbled legal strategy and reconsider a more aggressive pursuit of a global Roundup settlement.
October 24, 2024 – Massachusetts State Court Follows 3rd Circuit
A Massachusetts state court has found that federal law preempts a plaintiff’s claims that Monsanto failed to warn about the potential dangers of its weed killer, Roundup. Plaintiff’s design defects remain, but it is certainly a blow to lose the failure to warn claim.
The ruling mirrors the 3rd Circuit’s opinion in Schaffner v. Monsanto. The concern is that this case provides judges who are inclined to favor corporate protection, such as those who support Monsanto, with a legal basis to do so, and we will likely see more opinions like this.
October 10, 2024 – New $78 Million Verdict in Philadelphia
The jury in Melissen awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. Plaintiffs needed a big win, and we got one.
September 11, 2024 – Loss in Philadelphia
In Young v. Monsanto, a Philadelphia jury cleared Monsanto of liability, rejecting claims that its Roundup weedkiller caused the plaintiff’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The jury found that the plaintiff did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that Roundup was the cause of his cancer.
Plaintiffs will not win every Roundup lawsuit. Some cases are stronger than others. But to put this in context, in the five Roundup cases tried in Philadelphia, plaintiffs have won three. The biggest verdict was $2.25 billion (later reduced to $404 million so we will use that number), while the two other wins included verdicts of $3.5 million and $175 million. Including those two losses, the average of these verdicts is approximately $194.17 million.
September 3, 2024 – MDL Experts Motions
In the MDL, Monsanto has filed a motion to exclude the testimony of seven plaintiffs’ experts: Dr. Peter T. Silberstein, Dr. Bruce Woda, Dr. Lawrence M. Weiss, Dr. Craig Nichols, Dr. Richard Bakst, Dr. William Fleming, and Connie Welch-DuJardin. Plaintiffs filed their responses to these motions on Friday.
August 16, 2024: Big Appellate Win for Bayer
Bayer won a big victory in the 3rd Circuit yesterday. The court ruled that federal pesticide labeling regulations preempt state laws. This decision, stemming from a case in Pennsylvania, centers around whether the EPA approved pesticide labels, which do not include cancer warnings for Roundup, override state requirements for such warnings.
The court emphasized that once the EPA approves a label that omits specific health warnings, state laws demanding those warnings are preempted by federal law.
I don’t think Bayer’s fantasy of this going to the U.S. Supreme Court will become a reality. But we do now have a split among federal appellate courts over the issue of federal preemption of state warning requirements on pesticides. So, it is more realistic today than it was before this opinion.
Bayer stock is up 10% this morning on the news.
July 23, 2024: Important Appellate Win in Oregon
Plaintiff won a big appeal of a jury verdict in Oregon. The plaintiff contended that the trial court erred by excluding testimony from his expert, Dr. Charles Benbrook, regarding EPA regulations.
Benbrook was prepared to explain the overall regulatory framework for pesticides in the United States, including the processes and criteria the EPA uses to evaluate and approve pesticide products. This would encompass the complexities of FIFRA, how the EPA assesses the safety and efficacy of pesticides, and the significance of the EPA’s labeling requirements.
His testimony was also expected to shed light on how different pesticide regulations interact, particularly focusing on the EPA’s pesticide cancer risk assessment process and policy. This would involve discussing how the EPA and other regulatory bodies like the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reach different conclusions regarding the carcinogenicity of substances like glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
The Oregon intermediate appellate court agreed was a mistake not to allow Dr. Benbrook to testify. As a result, the appellate court reversed the judgment and remanded the case. This means the plaintiff gets a new trial.
Monsanto cross-appealed, arguing that the plaintiff’s claims were preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), looking for some court, somewhere, to buy into their argument. The court, however, rejected Monsanto’s argument, concluding, as every court has, that the FIFRA does not preempt the plaintiff’s state law claims. The appellate court specifically found that FIFRA’s express and implied preemption did not apply.
July 18, 2024: Plaintiffs’ Post-Trial Motions Fail in Kline
As expected, a motion for a new trial after the plaintiffs’ loss in Kline was rejected this week. This is the plaintiffs’ only loss in Philadelphia. Plaintiffs are three for four with three substantial verdicts totaling $3.5 million, $175 million, and $2.25 billion.
Plaintiff has a strong argument on appeal. We believe the trial court erred in restricting evidence regarding the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen, as well as a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which highlighted concerns with an EPA study on glyphosate.
We know these have been strong arguments for jurors in other cases. But you do not expect the trial judge to reverse course. This argument will get a fresh look on appeal.
June 28, 2024 – More on the Reduction of $2.5 Billion Verdict
In our June 5th update, we reported that the trial judge ruled that the $2.25 billion Roundup verdict was excessive and the award was reducing the award to $404 million. Judge Susan Schulman put out a 75-page opinion explaining the court’s reasoning.
The judge says the original compensatory damages exceeded reasonable compensation, given that the plaintiff did not claim economic loss or seek a specific amount of damages. The court also found the punitive damages excessive in relation to the compensatory damages, adjusting them to seven times the revised compensatory award.
I disagree. Juries are entrusted to assess the evidence, weigh the testimonies, and deliver verdicts that reflect the community’s sense of justice. The judge has effectively overridden the jury’s judgment by slashing the compensatory and punitive damages awarded to the plaintiff. Would the judge have increased the award to that number if the jury had awarded $5 million in this exact case?
But none of this matters in the big picture. Certainly, $404 million is almost equally impactful to the plaintiff’s life and it does not change the message the jury sent to Monsanto (not that it is necessarily listening).
June 12, 2024 – No New Jersey Roundup Class Action
The New Jersey Supreme Court has denied the request to designate litigation against Monsanto Co. and Bayer AG as multicounty litigation. This decision was announced in a notice to the bar published on Monday.
Why did the court deny consolidation? The court determined that the current number of cases did not justify a multiple-county litigation designation. As a result, all cases involving Roundup will continue to be filed in the appropriate counties of venue.
June 5, 2024 – Roundup Verdict Reduced to $400 Million
A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge has reduced the verdict in McKivision from January from $2.25 billion to $400 million.
I think the jury’s verdict should be respected. But we can all agree that $400 million is still an extremely large sum of money.
May 23, 2024 – Existential Threat
Bayer AG Chief Executive Officer Bill Anderson has described the ongoing wave of Roundup lawsuits over the widely used weedkiller Roundup as an “existential threat” to the company.
Speaking at the Executives’ Club of Chicago, Anderson emphasized the dire nature of the litigation threat, admitting that the glyphosate litigation threatens Bayer’s ability to survive and innovate for farmers.
If you read these updates regularly, how long have I been saying this? I swear I think he stole it from me. I’ve also been saying, like he says, that Monsanto makes a lot of other quality products. It does innovate for farmers. These two things can be true at the same time.
I think it is an existential threat, not because it is a situation that cannot be controlled. It is because Bayer will not do what it knows it must to resolve this litigation. Yes, it will have to take some lumps and pay a lot of money in settlements. But isn’t that better than going bankrupt? That is where we are heading.
May 8, 2024 – New Roundup Lawsuit Filed in Delaware
Last week in Delaware state court, a new Roundup lawsuit was filed by a professional arborist who has extensively used Roundup herbicide for over two decades in his line of work. He applied Roundup on various properties to clear out undesirable turf and weeds, preparing areas for new turf and maintaining flower beds around trees. He not only used the herbicide for his clients but also on his own property. His primary choice was Roundup concentrate, which he mixed with water and sprayed using handheld and backpack sprayers, regularly exposing his skin to the chemical.
In February 2023, the arborist was diagnosed with Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since his diagnosis, he has endured significant and disabling physical injuries resulting from both the disease and its treatments. Throughout this difficult period, his wife has been his primary caretaker, with his children also deeply affected by his condition.
The family was initially puzzled by the diagnosis, given his young age and lack of family history with the disease. They later discovered that his prolonged exposure to Roundup was likely the cause of his cancer.
This lawsuit adds to a growing docket of Roundup-related lawsuits being filed in Delaware state court.
April 6, 2024 – Billion Dollar Verdict Reduced
A judge knocked back the $1.56 billion jury verdict in state court in Missouri to three plaintiffs in November last year to $611 million.
Bayer will call it a win. But let’s all agree that a $611 million verdict is a darn good verdict.
April 2, 2024 – New Roundup Lawsuits
We got a call a few hours ago from a new client diagnosed with NHL in 2024.
This one individual’s tragedy reminds us all how this particular litigation works. Obviously, there is a latency period between the time of exposure to Roundup and the onset of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This means that after someone is exposed to Roundup, it could take several years before symptoms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma manifest. The latency period is the time required for the exposure to Roundup to initiate changes or damage in the body’s cells, which eventually can lead to the development of NHL and other forms of cancer.
So if Bayer stops selling Roundup today – see the March 19 update below – we will still be seeing new claims for the next 10 years. This is bad news for Bayer. But discontinuing the product or putting a warning on it would at least start the clock on the end of any Roundup litigation
March 19, 2024 – Bayer Seeks Alternative to Glyphosate
Bayer officials announced they are exploring a potential alternative to glyphosate, the key component in Roundup weed killer, which is associated with a heightened risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and has resulted in significant legal challenges for the company. This move to find a substitute for glyphosate is viewed by many as an indirect way of recalling Roundup, effectively withdrawing the controversial ingredient implicated by numerous plaintiffs in causing their cancer from the market.
Keeping Roundup on the market as it is now complicates Monsanto’s settlement process. Introducing a new version of Roundup, one without glyphosate, would be a great move toward mitigating these legal and public relations challenges. By developing and marketing a glyphosate-free alternative, Monsanto can demonstrate its commitment to safety and willingness to address the concerns that have led to numerous lawsuits and billions in settlements and verdicts. This shift could potentially reduce the company’s legal liabilities and facilitate a more straightforward path to settling existing lawsuits.
March 14, 2024 – Bayer Claims Bankruptcy Possible
Bayer planted an article in Bloomberg that appeared yesterday from anonymous sources that it is considering the Texas Two-Step bankruptcy. This strategy is named after a Texas law that allows corporations to divide their assets and liabilities, then push the liability-heavy unit into bankruptcy as a means to negotiate a comprehensive settlement.
It does not work in mass torts with solvent companies, such as 3M Co. and Johnson & Johnson, learned just last year in the two biggest mass torts in the country. The article points out that experts say the chances of success with the Texas Two-Step are doubtful and it signals Bayer’s desperation.
So what is the thinking here and why leak it to Bloomberg? Settlement. The one thing even a failed Texas Two-Step would do is temporarily slow things down. Now this is a threat that has some teeth. Plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ lawyers sense that Roundup settlement is not that far away. Plaintiffs want their money for obvious reasons. They have suffered horribly and justice has already been long delayed for most victims.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have a more nuanced reason to want a settlement sooner rather than later. In 2024, plaintiffs’ lawyers often finance the acquisition and handling of personal injury cases with mountains of debt. These attorneys do not want a delay, and Bayer knows it. If nothing else, this threat targets these lawyers to give them a little extra incentive to be flexible in settlement negotiations.
So, paradoxically, if you are looking for a tea leaf for a Monsanto Roundup settlement in 2024, I think we may have one here.
March 1, 2024 – Consolidation of Roundup Cases in NJ State Courts Sought
As the Roundup litigation intensifies, Plaintiffs’ Roundup NHL lawyers are seeking ways to organize the litigation better. This involves having an orderly process to administer these cases like we have, for example, in Philadelphia.
So, attorneys have submitted a petition to the Administrative Director of Courts in New Jersey requesting that all Roundup-related lawsuits filed in the state, which allege a connection to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, be grouped into what is called in New Jersey, Multi-County Litigation.
This is not a class action, each case would remain independent. Should the cases be consolidated under a single judge, this state-court mechanism would mirror the federal MDL approach, although hopefully at a faster pace than the California MDL. The presiding judge would oversee the discovery process on universally applicable issues and likely set up a “bellwether” trial system.
February 1, 2024 – What Is at Stake for Bayer
Reuters has a quote that I think is really on point:
January 30, 2023 – $6.7 Billion in Roundup Verdicts
This is the updated scorecard of Roundup verdicts:
| 2024 | McKivision | Pennsylvania | $2.25B |
| 2023 | Jones | California | Defense Verdict |
| 2023 | Martel | Pennsylvania | $3.46M |
| 2023 | Anderson and Two Others | Missouri | $1.56B |
| 2023 | Dennis | California | $332M |
| 2023 | Caranci | Pennsylvania | $175M |
| 2023 | Durnell | Missouri | $1.25M |
| 2023 | McCostlin | Missouri | Defense Verdict |
| 2023 | Gordon | Missouri | Defense Verdict |
| 2022 | Ferro | Missouri | Defense Verdict |
| 2022 | Alesi | Missouri | Defense Verdict |
| 2022 | Johnson | Oregon | Defense Verdict |
| 2022 | Shelton | Missouri | Defense Verdict |
| 2021 | Stephens | California | Defense Verdict |
| 2021 | Clark | California | Defense Verdict |
| 2019 | Hardeman | MDL-CA | $80.2M |
| 2019 | Pilliod | California | $2.05B |
| 2018 | Johnson | California | $289.2M |
The average payout for the last six Roundup lawsuits that went to trial, including a zero for the defense verdict, is a stunning $617,387,142.86.
January 26, 2024 – McKivision Verdict
The verdict is back in McKivision: $2.25 billion. The jury awarded $250 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages.
This was an educated jury. Half of the 12 jurors were college-educated, and two had master’s degrees. Plaintiffs’ arguments are working in front of men, women, educated, uneducated, you name it. Whoever did the focus groups for Bayer and told their lawyers to shoot for an educated jury should be fired.
Bayer should change the warning on Roundup today and do what it did last time – start settling cases with lawyers with the largest number of cases. I keep saying this verdict, and that verdict is a game changer, and we go back to business as usual. But this may be the verdict that turns the tide.
January 24, 2024 – Monsanto Struggles with Witness
After a series of losses, Monsanto tried out a new toxicologist, David Saltmiras, in the McKivision trial yesterday. Losing five trials in a row makes you want to try a new path.
It did not go well for Monsanto. Its lawyers tried—pushing the envelope like they pathologically do—to convert a fact witness into an expert witness, fusing opinions into his testimony. This did not please the plaintiff’s attorneys or Judge Susan I. Schulman, who moved to shut such testimony down.
January 11, 2024 – Monsanto’s “Cynical Diversion”
One leitmotif in these comments is my complaint that Monsanto, for lack of a better phrase, is such a baby when it loses.
Judge James Crumlish III of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas agrees. He sternly opposed Monsanto’s attempt to remove him from the case after a $175 million verdict as a transparent and manipulative tactic. He said the company’s goal is not to contest the trial’s evidence but to undermine the jury and the trial judge. He described Monsanto’s efforts as a delay tactic and a cynical diversion.
Again, this is not a one-off. Monsanto has previously attempted to disqualify judges in other cases, alleging bias against their defense. These efforts include a failed attempt to disqualify a California judge and accusations of favoritism against another Philadelphia judge after a $3.5 million verdict. Monsanto is the litigation version of politics in 2024. If you disagree with me, it must be because you are acting in bad faith.
Why does any of this really matter? Who cares if a defendant is being a baby? A rational defendant in Monsanto’s shoes right now would be doing everything it could to settle these lawsuits. But stuff like this makes you wonder if the company is rational about this litigation. I say the company… but maybe it is their outside lawyers. I’m not sure who is driving this train. But the adults in the room need to step up.
2023 Updates
Roundup Update December 6, 2023
Bayer loses. Again. Yesterday, another Philadelphia jury ordered Bayer to pay nearly $3.5 million to a woman who alleged that the company’s Roundup weedkiller caused her cancer. The verdict, reached after a three-week trial and two days of jury deliberation, comprised $462,500 in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages.
This verdict represents Bayer’s fifth consecutive loss. There is another trial in Philadelphia next month. I predict that the verdict will be more than $3.5 million.
In 15 trials, juries awarded victims a few thousand dollars shy of $4.5 billion. So, the average Roundup verdict is $300 million. If you multiply $300 million by the estimated 40,000 remaining cases, you get $12 trillion. (This is a little misleading because of trials with multiple plaintiffs, but you get the idea.)
Bayer CEO Bill Anderson has a degree from MIT and has had great success as a CEO in his two previous pharmaceutical company stints, which is how he earned the Bayer job. He pledged to study the company before taking action. The time for action is now. Because that train of success will come to a screeching halt if he does not find a way to settle the Roundup lawsuits.
Roundup Update November 20, 2023
In a verdict that truly redefines this litigation, a Missouri jury ordered Monsanto on Friday to pay over $1.5 billion in damages to three former users of its Roundup weedkiller, who claimed the product caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
The state court in Jefferson City, Missouri, awarded the plaintiffs a combined $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million each in punitive damages.
Valorie Gunther from New York, Jimmy Draeger from Missouri, and Daniel Anderson from California were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. All three were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The jury determined that Monsanto was responsible for their injuries due to not providing sufficient warnings about the dangers of Roundup.
These last four verdicts will almost certainly have an outsized impact on Roundup settlement amounts. Bayer keeps waiting to settle, hoping something good will happen. This is going from bad to worse to – I’ll say it again, existential threat – for Bayer.
We will get another verdict in Philadelphia in Martel v. Nouryon Chemicals, probably early next month. Bayer should settle that case today. But it won’t.
Roundup Update November 10, 2023
Bayer is not ready to settle. That message came out of a media call after Bayer’s third-quarter financial results were released. Bayer says they will keep defending Roundup litigation cases, particularly those involving glyphosate, its active ingredient, asserting to juries that the herbicide is safe when used as instructed.
I mean, what else is it going to say? The company cannot say, “We are getting hammered again, we will make reasonable settlement offers, I hope the plaintiffs agree. But AG’s Chief Financial Officer, Wolfgang Nickl, said something else interesting: “We have no appetite to write humongous checks and in a time where we have little free cash flow.”
When I was in college, I would get parking tickets at school. My plan for those parking tickets was to put them in my glovebox and try to forget about them. That is what Bayer is doing here. We do not have the money, so we will not pay it. But this is precisely what I did in college. These chickens will come home to roost. The problem is only going to get bigger.
Roundup Update November 4, 2023
To put it in context, Bayer is worth $44 billion (much less than it paid for Monsanto). In five days, Bayer absorbed two verdicts against Monsanto totaling over $500 million. So those two cases, which make up .005% of the estimated pending Roundup claims against Monsanto, were over 1% of the total value of the entire company.
My point is Bayer can still settle these lawsuits at a number that does not decapitate the company. But we are no longer in an MDL where trial dates move slowly. The state court docket is producing more and more trials. If Bayer does not act on settlement, things could spiral out of control pretty quickly. Bayer has to acknowledge that its playbook in this litigation is not working.
If you read these updates, I have complimented Bayer’s strategy of letting the weakest cases go to trial, get defense verdicts, and quell the enthusiasm of plaintiffs’ lawyers. It worked. But it is just not a sustainable strategy. I figured the point was to leverage victories and settle as many cases as possible before the Philadelphia trials began.
My guess is Bayer began to believe they were winning because their lawyers found the secret sauce to win, as opposed to crediting their strategy of trying cases with weak facts for plaintiffs.
Roundup Update November 2, 2023
The Legal Intelligencer correctly reports that plaintiffs’ Roundup attorneys are ramping up the pressure on Bayer to resolve numerous lawsuits or remove its Roundup pesticide from the market after three substantial verdicts amounting to over half a billion dollars were awarded against Monsanto.
Of course, the pressure of recent juries in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and California totaling over $500 million has changed the landscape. Plaintiffs’ lawyers want fair Roundup settlement offers and, at a minimum, a reasonable warning on the product.
Here is a quote from a Cornell professor:
“What’s surprising is they didn’t settle these cases. If I were Monsanto, I would settle the best cases with the best lawyers, and bring to trial the worst cases with the worst trials. I’m guessing they thought that was their strategy, too. But they made a mistake.”
But, actually, this is how Monsanto won nine in a row, doing exactly this. But Bayer did not want to overpay, and plaintiffs’ demands for settlement were just too high.
Bayer is said to be weighing bankruptcy. But I don’t think they really are. One option is the Texas Two-Step. The “Texas two-step” is a corporate maneuver that involves a divisional merger strategy often associated with liability restructuring for companies facing numerous lawsuits. They know the Texas Two-Step will not work and will just cost them millions more in legal fees from a company that is already bleeding legal fees.
Bayer could declare bankruptcy. But I do not think a single person within Bayer is really considering this as an option.
I laid out the plan a few days ago. Settle these cases. Put a warning on the product. And get back to ruling the agricultural world.
Roundup Update October 31, 2023
$332 million in Dennis. The jury awarded $7 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages. Getting one huge verdict last week was great. But now three for three in just a few weeks totaling over $500 million is a complete game changer.
Yes, Bayer won nine trials in a row. We kept telling you it was smoke and mirrors – they are letting weak cases go to trial. These last three verdicts prove this hypothesis.
Like Caranci, there was nothing unusual about Mr. Dennis’s case. He used Roundup on his lawn and garden for 35 years and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 51. These typical Roundup lawsuits are getting these incredible verdicts.
It is time to start talking about whether Roundup is an existential threat to Bayer. It would not be if Bayer just came to its senses and made reasonable settlement compensation to resolve these claims. But if this keeps spiraling – and there is a new trial next month – there is no telling where it leads.
Roundup Update October 28, 2023
$175 million verdict in Caranci!!!!
Roundup Update October 25, 2023
It is good to see reports that Bayer made no offer in the Roundup lawsuit that resulted in a $1.25 million verdict on Friday. Bayer is letting go to trial only cases it is extremely confident it can win. So it is encouraging to see plaintiffs win a case it seems Bayer thought was a slam dunk.
RoundUp Litigation in 2025
Not too long ago, Roundup was the most widely used weed killer in the world, employed by both homeowners and professional farmers. But then, many scientific studies started suggesting that prolonged exposure to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) might cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers. These studies led specific international health organizations to add glyphosate to their list of possible human carcinogens, sparking a rapid downward spiral for Roundup.
The identification of glyphosate as a possible carcinogen led to a wave of Roundup lawsuits by plaintiffs claiming that their use of Roundup caused them to develop lymphoma (and other diseases). Eventually, every Roundup lawsuit in federal courts was consolidated into a new mass tort MDL in the Northern District of California. The Roundup MDL gradually grew to over 100,000 cases, with thousands of additional Roundup cases pending in state courts in California.
Huge Roundup Verdicts Broke Monsanto’s Resolve
I think Monsanto had a somewhat unique corporate resolve to ignore the evidence that Roundup causes NHL. They initially relied on unreliable data to support their hypothesis, and when the evidence became clear, Monsanto chose to ignore it. I’m convinced this is how history will write this story.
After years of discovery, that unshakable resolve crumbled. The first Roundup cases went to trial with disastrous results for Bayer. The first two trials resulted in $289 million and $80 million verdicts. The third trial ended in an eye-popping verdict of $2 billion for the plaintiff.
These verdicts effectively broke Bayer’s resolve, and they immediately shifted their focus to negotiating settlements. Eventually, they set aside $16 billion to cover settlements of pending claims.
Most Pending Roundup Cases Have Been Settled
In March 2022, Bayer, which owns Roundup and Monsanto, told investors that the company had reached tentative settlement agreements in roughly 98,000 pending Roundup lawsuits. This accounts for nearly 80% of all pending Roundup cases. Bayer has brokered these settlements primarily by negotiating block settlement arrangements with lawyers with large litigation cases. In 2025, there are approximately 67,000 open Roundup lawsuits.
Points System for Monsanto’s Roundup Settlement
The Roundup settlements are somewhat complicated because they create a complex point-scoring system designed to rank cases into settlement tiers based on the strength of claims and severity of injuries. Case-specific factors such as type of cancer, treatment outcome, age of the victim, estimated earnings capacity, etc., are awarded point scores. Individual cases are then placed into settlement tiers based on point scores, and cases with higher scores get a bigger payout. Cases with lower point scores end up getting much smaller payouts.
The Future of Roundup Lawsuits
While Bayer continues to work on settling these remaining Roundup cases, the company is telling investors that future Roundup liabilities will depend on the outcome of the company’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Future liability has been one of the most significant issues for Bayer in the Roundup litigation. It may take years or even decades for Roundup users to develop lymphoma. This means Bayer could face a steady stream of new Roundup lawsuits for the next 20 years. This type of “long tail” tort liability can be a nightmare for publicly traded corporations like Bayer.
Initially, Bayer sought to deal with future liability issues through a controversial global Roundup settlement arrangement that would have stayed and potentially frozen all future Roundup lawsuits. This proposal met fierce opposition and was rejected by the MDL back in May.
Bayer has now adopted a two-pronged strategy to limit its future liability for Roundup. First, Bayer announced it would pull glyphosate-based Roundup from retail shelves at the start of 2023. The original Roundup will be replaced by a new version that does not contain glyphosate. This move will effectively cap any future Roundup liability in the years to come.
The second prong of Bayer’s strategy is based on winning an appeal to the Supreme Court in the Hardeman case. Hardeman was the first Roundup bellwether trial to result in a massive verdict. Bayer has been appealing the Hardeman, hoping to win a game-changing legal argument. Bayer is arguing that the Roundup claims should be preempted by federal law because the EPA has found that cancer warnings are not required for glyphosate. If Bayer can get an appellate court to accept this legal argument, it would effectively block many future Roundup claims.
Bayer hopes the Supreme Court appeal will save them. Soon (writing this in June 2025) we will know shortly if the high court will even consider the case. If the Supreme Court declines to hear the case or rejects Bayer’s legal argument, Bayer plans to set up an administrative process to handle future claims and has already set aside $4 billion to cover the cost. (Get an update on the Supreme Court appeal.)
Roundup Lawsuit FAQs for 2025
How many Roundup lawsuits have been filed and settled so far?
As of spring 2025, Monsanto has settled nearly 100,000 Roundup lawsuits. That is a staggering number, and it represents most of the original claims filed. These settlements were part of Bayer’s $11 billion effort to resolve the bulk of the litigation after acquiring Monsanto.
But that is not the end of the story. There are still around 67,000 active Roundup lawsuits pending across the country. Most of these are in state courts, although over 4,000 remain in the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) in California. New lawsuits are still being filed every week, especially by individuals recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This litigation is very much alive.
What is the average payout for a Roundup lawsuit?
In the original settlement program, Roundup lawsuit payouts typically ranged from $100,000 to $160,000. That was for the first wave of claims back when Bayer was trying to put out the fire and avoid further courtroom losses.
Now, we are in what many are calling “Roundup Phase 2” — and there was hope that the numbers will go up. Why? Because plaintiffs have won several huge verdicts between 2023 and 2025. Juries have handed out awards of $175 million, $332 million, $2.25 billion, and even $2.1 billion in individual and consolidated cases. These are not outliers. They reflect the risk Bayer takes by continuing to fight these cases rather than settling.
So, are higher average payouts realistic in this next round of settlements? Probably not. We do not think you will see average settlements higher than the first round. We would love to be wrong, but it really comes down to what Bayer can afford to pay and not go bankrupt. Although things have improved slightly for Bayer, the company remains unhealthy. Bayer was worth twice as much in the first round of settlements. Put another way, a company worth $26 billion cannot pay $26 billion in settlements.
Why are Roundup lawsuits still being filed in 2025?
Roundup lawsuits are still being filed because many people who used Roundup in the past are just now getting diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. There is a latency period between exposure and the development of symptoms. That means we could see new cases for years to come.
Another reason is awareness. For some people, it was not until these big jury verdicts started making headlines that they realized Roundup might have caused their cancer. Once they connect the dots, they begin looking for legal help. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed recently and used Roundup, the clock may be ticking on your ability to file.
Is there still time to file a Roundup lawsuit?
Yes, there may still be time to file, but it depends on where you live and when you were diagnosed. Each state has its own statute of limitations. Some give you two or three years from the date of diagnosis, while others use different rules.
We cannot stress this enough: timing is critical. We recently saw a very strong case get dismissed in Philadelphia because of the statute of limitations. The facts were on the plaintiff’s side, but the window to file had already closed. If you believe Roundup may have played a role in your diagnosis, do not wait. Talk to a lawyer as soon as possible.
How do Roundup settlement tiers work, and what does that mean for payout amounts?
The Roundup settlement program is not a one-size-fits-all payout. When Bayer first agreed to settle a large group of lawsuits in 2020, the company set up a point-based system to determine how much money each plaintiff would receive. That same structure is likely to shape how the next round of settlements plays out in 2025 and beyond.
Here is how it works: each case is evaluated using a scoring system that assigns points based on a range of factors. These can include the type and stage of cancer, the age of the plaintiff, how long and how often the person used Roundup, how the disease has impacted their ability to work, the intensity of treatment, and whether the person has passed away. Some cases may also earn “bonus” points if there is a particularly strong causal link or compelling story.
These points are used to sort cases into settlement tiers. Higher-tier cases receive more compensation. Lower-tier cases still qualify for a payout, but the amount is significantly smaller. For example, someone with aggressive, late-stage NHL and long-term Roundup use who is under 50 might receive several times more than a claimant with earlier-stage disease and more limited exposure.
If you have a claim or are considering filing one, it is helpful to understand that your case will be judged on its own merits. The blockbuster verdicts in court send a message, but individual settlements still depend heavily on the facts of each case..
Call a Roundup Lawyer Today
If you need a Roundup lawyer to fight against Monsanto, call us today at 800-553-8082. There is a deadline to file, which is a really big deal. We just saw what was likely to be a great case get dismissed in Philadelphia on the statute of limitations. So call our lawyers or call another lawyer today. Don’t wait. You can also reach out to us online.