Firm profiles
Former Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley founded this Alabama plaintiffs' firm in 1979. Its lawyers share the lead in the ARC airbag MDL and hold a seat on the hair relaxer MDL executive committee. Auto-defect suits have been part of its work for decades.
Beasley Allen advertises Roundup, hair relaxer and ARC and ZF-TRW airbag cases.
- Home office
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Opened
- 1979
- Fee terms
- Contingency ("No Win, No Fee or Case Costs")
- Case types it promotes
- hair relaxer, Roundup, airbags (ARC and ZF-TRW)
Court posts
- In March 2023, Demet Basar was named co-lead counsel in MDL 3051, the ARC airbag inflator MDL in the N.D. Ga. Citation
- Navan Ward holds a seat on the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in MDL 3060, the hair relaxer MDL. Citation
- Dee Miles was named to the plaintiffs' steering committee in the ZF-TRW airbag control unit MDL in the C.D. Cal. Citation
Reported wins
- The firm reports a $162 million settlement tied to a 2021 van crash in which the van had the wrong load-range tires. Citation
Before you call
- In March 2026, Beasley Allen said it was still reviewing new Roundup cases.
Site: beasleyallen.com
Schmidt & Clark represents injured people in individual cases from every part of the U.S. Most of its work is mass torts, including defective products, medical devices, dangerous drugs and toxic exposure.
Schmidt & Clark takes all four case types on this page: Roundup, hair relaxer, airbags and pressure cookers. It has not posted verdict or settlement figures, so ask what it has recovered in similar cases.
- Home office
- Washington, DC
- Opened
- 2005
- Fee terms
- Free case review; phone line open 24/7
- Case types it promotes
- Roundup, hair relaxer, airbags, pressure cookers, other defective products
Honors
- The firm says Best Lawyers put it on the 2026 "Best Law Firms" list. Citation
- The Texas Board of Legal Specialization lists partner C.L. Mike Schmidt as board-certified in both Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law. The National Board of Trial Advocacy lists him as certified in Civil Trial. Citation
- The firm reports 19 straight years of Super Lawyers selection. Citation
Before you call
- Its website lists no individual verdict or settlement figures. Ask what it has recovered in cases like yours.
- Find out if the firm would keep your case or send it to co-counsel. Mass tort firms often work with co-counsel.
Site: schmidtandclark.com
Morgan & Morgan is a national personal-injury firm based in Orlando. It opened in 1988 and reports more than 1,100 attorneys in about 140 offices.
Morgan & Morgan advertises Roundup, hair relaxer and airbag cases. It has no dedicated pressure cooker page.
- Home office
- Orlando, Florida
- Opened
- 1988
- Fee terms
- Contingency ("The Fee Is Free Unless You Win")
- Case types it promotes
- Roundup, hair relaxer, airbags, general defective products
Court posts
- Rene F. Rocha is on the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee of the hair relaxer MDL (MDL 3060). Citation
Reported wins
- In June 2026, a Florida jury awarded $603 million to the family of a woman who died when a counterfeit airbag inflator exploded. The defendant never appeared at trial. Citation
- In Winckler v. Suzuki, a jury returned a $20 million verdict over motorcycle brakes. An appeals court upheld it in April 2026. Citation
Before you call
- The firm has about 140 offices, so ask which lawyer and which office would run your case each day.
Site: forthepeople.com
Ron Motley and Joseph F. Rice founded this South Carolina mass-tort firm in 2003. It shares the lead in the hair relaxer MDL and says it holds co-lead roles in the ARC airbag, GLP-1, social media and opioid MDLs.
Motley Rice advertises hair relaxer, Roundup and ARC airbag cases. It says it is a co-lead counsel in the ARC airbag MDL.
- Home office
- Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
- Opened
- 2003
- Fee terms
- Contingency in most cases
- Case types it promotes
- hair relaxer, Roundup, paraquat, ARC airbags
Court posts
- In March 2023, Fidelma Fitzpatrick was named plaintiffs' co-lead counsel in MDL 3060, the hair relaxer MDL. Citation
- Motley Rice states that the court appointed it as one of the co-lead counsel in MDL 3051, the ARC airbag MDL. Citation
- Motley Rice says it holds a co-lead counsel role in the GLP-1 MDL (2024). Citation
Reported wins
- The firm reports a $305 million settlement in 2019 on behalf of 10 California jurisdictions in lead-paint pigment cases. Citation
Before you call
- Joe Rice, a co-founder, died in September 2026. Its MDL leadership roles continue.
Site: motleyrice.com
Johnson // Becker is a product-liability firm in St. Paul. It represents plaintiffs in most of the federal pressure cooker injury suits. Its lawyers also hold leadership roles in the hair relaxer, Suboxone and infant formula MDLs.
Johnson // Becker also sits on the hair relaxer MDL executive committee.
- Home office
- St. Paul, Minnesota
- Fee terms
- Contingency (no fee or costs unless the firm recovers money)
- Case types it promotes
- pressure cookers, hair relaxer, general product liability
Court posts
- Timothy J. Becker serves on the hair relaxer MDL's Plaintiffs' Executive Committee (MDL 3060). Citation
- In March 2024, Timothy J. Becker became one of four co-lead counsel in the Suboxone film MDL (MDL 3092) in the N.D. Ohio. Citation
Reported wins
- A Law Street Media analysis found the firm represented plaintiffs in 61% of the 292 federal pressure cooker suits filed between 2019 and January 2024. Citation
Before you call
- It does not post pressure cooker verdict amounts. Most of its cases end in confidential settlements.
Site: johnsonbecker.com
Lieff Cabraser is a class-action and mass-tort firm based in San Francisco since its 1972 founding. Its lawyers hold leadership posts in the Takata, ARC and ZF-TRW airbag cases and in the hair relaxer MDL.
Lieff Cabraser also sits on the hair relaxer MDL executive committee and has filed hair relaxer suits.
- Home office
- San Francisco, California
- Opened
- 1972
- Fee terms
- Not listed on its About page
- Case types it promotes
- hair relaxer, airbags (Takata, ARC, ZF-TRW)
Court posts
- The court appointed David Stellings co-lead counsel in two airbag MDLs, ARC (Atlanta) and ZF-TRW (Los Angeles). Takata MDL 2599 also counts him among its plaintiff leaders. Citation
- Kelly M. Dermody sits on the hair relaxer MDL's Plaintiffs' Executive Committee (MDL 3060). Citation
Reported wins
- Economic-loss settlements in the Takata airbag cases with Honda, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, BMW, Subaru and Mazda came to more than $1.5 billion combined. Citation
- In Mraz v. DaimlerChrysler, the firm reports a $54.4 million verdict. The case involved a known defect that went unfixed and led to a death. Citation
Before you call
- A large share of its airbag work involves economic-loss class cases. Ask how the firm treats individual injury claims.
Site: lieffcabraser.com
Each win above comes from the firm's own reports or from court records. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Where each lawsuit stands
The table below shows each lawsuit in one line. Federal case counts come from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) report dated Oct. 1, 2026.
| Lawsuit |
Court |
Pending federal cases (Oct. 1, 2026) |
Stage now |
Next thing to watch |
| Roundup |
N.D. Cal. (MDL 2741); St. Louis state court for the class deal |
1,104 |
Class settlement awaits final approval |
Final approval ruling; St. Louis design-defect trial |
| Hair relaxer |
N.D. Ill. (MDL 3060) |
12,381 |
Pretrial; science ruling pending |
First bellwether trial, Sept. 7, 2027 (tracker) |
| ARC airbags |
N.D. Ga. (MDL 3051) |
24 |
Motions to dismiss decided Oct. 2, 2026 |
Class certification; final NHTSA decision |
| Takata airbags |
S.D. Fla. (MDL 2599) |
78 |
Older MDL, still open |
Remaining cases |
| Pressure cookers |
No MDL; courts nationwide |
Not tracked by the JPML |
Individual suits |
Tenth Circuit appeal in Perez v. Sunbeam |
An MDL (multidistrict litigation) groups similar federal cases before one judge for pretrial work. Each person keeps their own claim. A “bellwether” trial is one of the first cases tried, used as a test. Its result helps both sides value the other cases.
New this month
These are the developments since late September 2026.
- Oct. 1, 2026: new case counts. The JPML reported 12,381 pending hair relaxer cases, up from 11,877 on July 1. Roundup stood at 1,104, Takata at 78 and ARC at 24.
- Oct. 2, 2026: ARC airbag ruling. Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. granted and denied motions to dismiss in part. He dismissed Audi for lack of standing. He dismissed Hyundai Korea and Kia Korea with prejudice. He dismissed ARC for lack of personal jurisdiction in the cases he identified. Other defendants remain.
- Sept. 29, 2026: Roundup trial opened in St. Louis. Three women with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who are outside the class are trying design-defect claims. No verdict had been reported as of Oct. 7, 2026, according to a plaintiff-firm tracker.
- Roundup settlement: still no final ruling. The fairness hearing took place Sept. 14, 2026. As of mid-October no ruling had been reported, according to the same plaintiff-firm tracker.
- Sept. 24, 2026: hair relaxer trial date. A third-party docket tracker says an order put the first federal bellwether trial on Sept. 7, 2027. A joint proposal to cut the bellwether pool from 10 cases to 5 was due Oct. 21, 2026.
- September 2026: Arizona sued L’Oréal. Attorney General Kris Mayes filed the first state lawsuit over hair relaxer cancer risks. L’Oréal rejects the claims as lacking legal or scientific merit.
- October 2026: L’Oréal hired restructuring advisers. Reuters, citing the Wall Street Journal, said the review is mainly about talc. The report did not say it targets hair relaxer suits.
Roundup: MDL 2741 and the $7.25 billion class deal
Roundup lawsuits claim the weed killer’s active ingredient, glyphosate, caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Two things drive the cases now.
First, the Supreme Court decided Monsanto Co. v. Durnell on June 25, 2026. The vote was 7-2. The Court held that federal pesticide law (FIFRA) blocks state failure-to-warn claims that would require a cancer warning on an EPA-approved label. The ruling did not address design-defect claims. Bayer, which owns Monsanto, says the decision should end current warning-based claims. That is Bayer’s own statement.
Second, Monsanto filed a proposed nationwide class settlement of up to $7.25 billion in St. Louis on Feb. 17, 2026. A state judge granted preliminary approval on March 4. The opt-out deadline was June 4. The fairness hearing was Sept. 14. No final ruling had been reported as of mid-October, according to a plaintiff-firm tracker.
The federal MDL in San Francisco had 1,104 pending cases as of Oct. 1, 2026. Read the full timeline on our Roundup lawsuit update.
Hair relaxer: MDL 3060
Hair relaxer lawsuits claim chemical straighteners caused uterine, ovarian or endometrial cancer. The cases sit before Judge Mary M. Rowland in Chicago. The JPML centralized them in February 2023.
As of Oct. 1, 2026, 12,381 cases were pending in the MDL. It is the fourth-largest pending MDL in the country. Defendants include L’Oréal USA and SoftSheen-Carson, Revlon, Strength of Nature, Dabur and Namaste Labs, PDC Brands and Avlon Industries, according to a third-party docket tracker.
The defendants have asked the court to exclude the plaintiffs’ general-causation science. That motion was fully briefed in June 2026. It was still waiting for a ruling as of Sept. 30, 2026, according to the same tracker. The court lifted the stay on “Second Wave” defendants on July 24, 2026. No global settlement has been announced. See the hair relaxer lawsuit update for the full schedule.
Airbags: ARC MDL 3051 and Takata MDL 2599
Two airbag MDLs remain open.
The ARC MDL in Atlanta had 24 pending cases as of Oct. 1, 2026. Most are economic-loss class claims, not injury claims. NHTSA issued an initial decision in September 2023 that ARC and Delphi frontal inflators made through January 2018 have a safety defect. It added a supplemental initial decision in 2024. As of May 2026, NHTSA had not issued a final ARC recall order.
The Takata MDL in Miami had 78 pending cases as of Oct. 1, 2026. NHTSA reports at least 28 U.S. deaths tied to Takata inflators. In February 2026, Stellantis added about 225,000 older vehicles to a “Do Not Drive” warning.
Counterfeit inflators are a separate risk. On April 29, 2026, NHTSA ordered a recall of aftermarket inflators marked “DTN60DB,” made by China’s Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology. Details are on our airbag lawsuit update.
Pressure cookers: no MDL
Pressure cooker cases work differently. There is no MDL and no nationwide class action. Each burn victim files a separate lawsuit.
Law Street Media counted 292 federal pressure cooker suits from 2019 to January 2024. Of those that ended, 133 settled out of court. The most-sued companies were Instant Brands, Sunbeam (Crock-Pot), Tristar, SharkNinja, Sensio (Bella) and NuWave.
The CPSC is still acting. On Feb. 24, 2026, it told consumers to stop using Gourmia GPC625 6-quart pressure cookers after Gourmia and its retailer refused an acceptable recall. In Perez v. Sunbeam, a Colorado federal jury awarded $55.5 million in December 2024. The judge cut the award to about $9.1 million under state damages caps, and the case is on appeal. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. See the pressure cooker lawsuit update.
What this means if you were hurt
A lawsuit’s stage changes what you can do, but it rarely stops you from filing. Each case type has its own rules.
- Roundup: The class deal covers people exposed before mid-February 2026 who are diagnosed with NHL now or within 16 years of approval, if a court approves it. Ask a lawyer whether you are in the class.
- Hair relaxer: New cases are still being filed. The MDL grew by more than 500 cases between July 1 and Oct. 1, 2026.
- Airbags: Injury claims often turn on the exact vehicle, inflator and recall. Keep the car and its records if you can.
- Pressure cookers: Keep the cooker, the lid and the receipt. Note the model number.
Every state sets its own filing deadline, and some are as short as two years. Ask a lawyer how long your state gives you to file.
How we picked the firms
We list firms that advertise at least two of the lawsuits on this page. The order reflects our editorial view of fit for these case types. Schmidt & Clark’s listing describes what it takes and how it does intake. It holds no court-appointed roles found in public records and does not publish verdict amounts. Facts about the other firms come from court orders, news reports and the firms’ own websites, linked in each entry. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.