Do You Need Roundup Lawsuit Representation?

Roundup is a widely available weed killer first sold in the early 1970s. There’s a connection between it and cancer development, according to medical research. If you put your trust into the product but you have cancer, contact Wapner Newman so we can discuss your legal rights and options to get compensation for your medical bills and other harm you suffered.

Thousands of Roundup Cancer Lawsuits are Pending Throughout the Country

Roundup Users Want Compensation for Their Injuries

This product is the subject of thousands of Roundup lymphoma lawsuits because of its active ingredient, glyphosate, a common herbicide (or weedkiller) used on residential, business, and agricultural properties. Glyphosate is now available in many commercial herbicides. Concerns have increased worldwide about the potential wide-ranging direct and indirect health effects of the large-scale use of glyphosate. Roundup in different forms is used by the general public, landscapers, farmers, and those working in agriculture. Monsanto (now owned by Bayer AG), the company that developed Roundup, also created glyphosate-resistant crops. Farmers growing these plants spray their fields, hoping weeds are killed, but their crops would be unaffected. Glyphosate is now the most widely used herbicide worldwide. The World Health Organization reclassified glyphosate in 2015 as probably carcinogenic to humans. Although there’s little evidence of severe, toxic effects of glyphosate shortly after exposure, animal studies show long-term health effects after repeated low doses. A study by University of Washington researchers published in 2019 “suggests a compelling link between exposures to (glyphosate-based herbicides) and increased risk for (non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)).” Other studies show exposure to glyphosate or herbicides containing it increases the risk of NHL and it may promote tumor growth in human tissue. It may affect sexual differentiation, reproduction, the formation of sex organs and contribute to hormone-related diseases. Animal studies demonstrate harm by glyphosate herbicides on kidney and liver function.

What is Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and How is it Treated?

This Blood-Related Cancer Turns Your Immune System Against You

NHL impacts your lymph (or lymphatic) system, which is part of your immune system, reports the American Cancer Society. Your lymph glands are connected and help fight infections and some diseases while moving fluids through the body. With NHL, two types of white blood cells that should fight infections become malignant. The condition may be aggressive and quickly grow or progress slowly. Symptoms of NHL include:
  • Swollen and painful lymph nodes or glands
  • Fevers
  • Sweating and chills, especially at night
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Fatigue
  • Swollen abdomen
  • Feeling full after eating only a small amount of food
  • Chest pain or a feeling of pressure
  • Shortness of breath or cough.
If you or a loved one shows these symptoms, see a doctor as soon as possible. Many conditions could cause these issues, so you need to rule out NHL. Treatments can be debilitating, consume a lot of time, be exhausting, and are expensive. They can weaken your body and make you more susceptible to infections. Treatments can include: NHL is staged based on how advanced the disease is and how far it has spread. The earlier the diagnosis, the lower the number. The five-year survival rate decreases as the stage increases, from 81.1% for Stage I to 58.5% to Stage III and IV.

How Would a Roundup Lawsuit in Philadelphia or New Jersey Work?

Personal injury lawsuits often plead different causes of action or bases on which the court should find for the plaintiff. When a dangerous product harms people, negligence and product liability theories are often used.

A Roundup Lymphoma Lawsuit Could be Made Using Negligence

In a negligence case, we would need to prove that:
  • Bayer (or Monsanto when it produced Roundup) owed you a legal duty or obligation to not sell a dangerous product.
  • Bayer broke that obligation or violated that duty by making and selling Roundup, a product that it didn’t test enough, which they knew or should have known was hazardous, whose warnings were incomplete.
  • Bayer’s actions or failures to act caused, factually and legally, your harm.
  • That harm (or damages) can be calculated and measured.
  • Under Pennsylvania or New Jersey law, Bayer is under a legal obligation to compensate you for those damages.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are comparative negligence states. Bayer may try to put some of the blame on you. If they are successful, your recovery would be reduced by your share of the fault. They may claim that you ignored safety warnings or abused the product, exposing yourself to Roundup far more than if you acted reasonably and followed the directions.

A Roundup Cancer Case Could be Proven Through Product Liability

Another way to hold Bayer responsible is through a product liability claim which doesn’t rely on negligence. The Roundup cancer lawsuit would argue that Roundup is an unreasonably dangerous product even when used as intended, due to a problem or defect. Those defects could be improper design, defect during manufacture, or inadequate warnings or instructions. Laws in this area vary from state to state. In Pennsylvania, defective design is considered using two standards:
  • Risk-utility: Was the injury caused by Roundup serious or likely enough to outweigh the cost of taking precautions to prevent the injury? If Roundup caused NHL when users ignored warnings not to drink it, the cost of taking precautions would be worth it.
  • Consumer expectations: Is Roundup more dangerous than a reasonable consumer would expect? A product advertised and marketed as safe when used as directed but causes cancer in users who follow instructions would be more dangerous than a reasonable consumer would and should expect.
A manufacturing defect occurs if a product is dangerous because it wasn’t assembled, mixed, or built correctly. The product may have a safe design, but manufacturing problems make it unsafe. Roundup lawsuits don’t allege a manufacturing defect. A Roundup lawsuit in Philadelphia could allege a defective product because of inadequate warnings. The product carries a risk because of its design, and it can’t be manufactured to make it safe, so Bayer must provide adequate warnings of Roundup’s potential danger. Failure to give these warnings or to do so in a way that’s hard to see or understand can result in liability for Bayer. Roundup has no warnings that it may cause NHL, and Bayer denies that it does so. The New Jersey Product Liability Act must be part of a Roundup lawsuit filed in New Jersey. It covers all potential claims, including negligence, when it’s alleged that a product caused injuries. A plaintiff would need to prove Roundup has a manufacturing defect, doesn’t have sufficient instructions or warnings, or its design is defective so it’s not reasonably fit, suitable or safe for its intended purpose. A sufficient warning is . . .
  • One that a reasonably prudent person in the same or similar circumstances would have provided
  • Concerns Roundup’s dangers
  • One that communicates enough information about its dangers and safe use
  • Considers the characteristics and knowledge commonly held by its intended purchasers.
To show that Roundup has a design defect, you would prove that its risks outweigh its usefulness or it that could have been designed another way to lessen or eliminate the risk of harm. That proposed alternate design must be practical and feasible. Bayer may try a “state of the art” defense claiming that existing science doesn’t allow a reasonably safer alternative design.

Damages Available in a Roundup Cancer Lawsuit

Damages are the harm caused by Roundup measured in dollars. Depending on what happened to you because of your exposure, the damages could include:
  • Past, present, and expected future medical bills and related costs
  • Lost pay and benefits because you missed work to get treatment or because you’re disabled
  • Future pay and benefits you’ll lose because you’ll work less or not at all
  • Physical pain, anxiety, emotional trauma, and the impact on your relationships
  • If your Roundup-related cancer is fatal, your next of kin could file a wrongful death claim.
If a jury in a Roundup lawsuit in Philadelphia finds Bayer’s actions were reckless and outrageous, a jury may award punitive damages. They would punish the company for its actions and discourage it and other companies from taking similar acts in the future.

Wapner Newman Roundup Lawyers Can Help You Get the Compensation You Deserve

Our Experience With Product Liability Cases Can be Put to Work for You

More than a hundred thousand Roundup cancer cases have been filed in state and federal courts across the nation. Tens of thousands have settled for billions of dollars. Bayer is appealing one case decided for the plaintiff to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court doesn’t take the appeal or rules against it, the company claims it will set aside $4.5 billion to settle active and future cases. That’s in addition to the $11.6 billion it has pledged in the past to settle Roundup cancer cases. Despite the billions of dollars used to settle cases, Bayer denies that Roundup is dangerous or caused plaintiffs’ cancers. The company states that by 2023 it will replace glyphosate in Roundup. Wapner Newman holds corporations responsible for the harm their products cause. If you or a family member used Roundup and were later diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma or another cancer and believe Roundup might be responsible, contact us today. Bayer is too big a company to handle by yourself. Why does Bayer want to settle? Though some jury verdicts were later reduced, and these cases are under appeal, three Roundup lawsuits against Monsanto have gone to trial resulting in large jury awards. In one, a married couple both diagnosed with cancer received an award of more than $2 billion. California juries awarded $289 million in one Roundup cancer case and $80 million in another. These Roundup lymphoma lawsuits show that the juries can be sympathetic to a seriously ill Roundup user while not giving much credit to Bayer’s claim the product is safe and knew nothing of its dangers.

Contact Our Roundup Lawyers in Philadelphia For a Free Consultation

If you or a member of your immediate family, after using Roundup, is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and you believe it’s to blame, you need a Wapner Newman attorney on your side to help protect your interests and hold Bayer responsible. Contact our Philadelphia Roundup cancer lawyers online or by phone at (800) 529-6600 for a free, no-obligation consultation.