{ "brief": "hair-relaxer", "title": "Hair Relaxer (MDL 3060) — Acquisition Cost and Docket Brief", "publisher": "Mass Tort Ad Agency", "url": "https://masstortadagency.com/tort-brief/hair-relaxer", "posture": "Pre-Daubert. Science risk unresolved.", "venue": "MDL 3060 (N.D. Ill.) · Judge Mary M. Rowland", "computed_at": "2026-07-23 08:02:00", "generated_at": "2026-07-23T15:43:01.095Z", "disclaimer": "Acquisition figures are computed from MTAA-managed Meta campaign delivery over trailing windows and change daily. Sample sizes are small; treat as directional. Figures are managed-account results, not a market-wide index, and not a price quote.", "acquisition": [ { "track": "Hair relaxer", "tort_slug": "hair-relaxer", "is_primary": true, "mdl_number": "3060", "status": "live", "windows": [ { "window_days": 7, "spend": 27831.73, "leads": 332, "signed": 21, "cpl": 83.83051204819277, "cpsc": 1425.3204761904763, "qualifying_campaigns": 1, "has_signed_data": true }, { "window_days": 30, "spend": 58870.24, "leads": 665, "signed": 41, "cpl": 88.52667669172932, "cpsc": 1535.8595121951219, "qualifying_campaigns": 1, "has_signed_data": true } ] } ], "docket": [ { "event_date": "2023-02-06", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "In re Hair Relaxer Mktg., Sales Pracs. & Prods. Liab. Litig.", "defendants": "L'Oréal USA, Avlon, Bronner Bros., others", "disposition": "Consolidated before Judge Mary M. Rowland", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "JPML transfer order pulled 50+ federal actions into one pretrial pipeline." }, { "event_date": "2025-04-01", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Case Management Order 17", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Special Master Ellen K. Reisman appointed", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "Coordinates settlement discussions across the MDL and parallel state proceedings." }, { "event_date": "2025-06-01", "venue": "Phila. Ct. of Common Pleas", "caption": "State coordination", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Hair relaxer cases consolidated into a mass tort program", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "Illinois state courts hold the largest state-level grouping; NY and GA proceedings also active." }, { "event_date": "2026-01-08", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Science Day", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Expert presentations on hormone disruption and cancer link", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "Held before Judge Rowland with visiting state court judges present." }, { "event_date": "2026-02-16", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Bellwether pool", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Case-specific fact discovery closed", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "Extended from the original 2025 cutoff to accommodate pool growth." }, { "event_date": "2026-04-01", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "General causation", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Daubert motions due on general causation", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "The central scientific question in the litigation." }, { "event_date": "2026-04-08", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Bellwether selection", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Court named all 10 trial-track bellwethers itself", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": "Rowland scrapped the party-driven alternating-pick process and expanded from 3 to 10." }, { "event_date": "2026-06-30", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Expert disclosures", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Plaintiffs' expert disclosures served", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "confirmed", "note": null }, { "event_date": "2026-08-03", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Expert disclosures", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Defense expert disclosures due", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "scheduled", "note": null }, { "event_date": "2026-11-16", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Daubert / summary judgment", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Daubert and summary judgment motions due", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "scheduled", "note": "The inflection point. A general-causation exclusion here would end the litigation." }, { "event_date": "2027-01-06", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "Summary judgment", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "Summary judgment replies due", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "scheduled", "note": null }, { "event_date": "2027-07-01", "venue": "MDL 3060 — N.D. Ill.", "caption": "First bellwether trial", "defendants": "—", "disposition": "First trials expected mid-2027", "amount_text": null, "confidence": "scheduled", "note": "No trial date is fixed. Mid-2027 is the parties' working expectation, not an order." } ], "pending_actions": [ { "as_of": "2026-05-01", "pending_actions": 11526, "source": "JPML pending-actions report" }, { "as_of": "2026-07-01", "pending_actions": 11877, "source": "JPML pending-actions report" } ], "velocity": { "has_trend": false, "added": 351, "days": 61, "per_month": 173, "last_period_added": 351, "last_period_days": 61, "last_period_from": "2026-05-01", "from": "2026-05-01", "to": "2026-07-01", "latest": 11877 }, "risks": [ { "h": "The November ruling is binary", "p": "General causation Daubert briefing closes November 16, 2026. A ruling excluding plaintiffs' causation experts would effectively end the federal litigation, and every case acquired between now and then would be a write-off. There is no way to hedge this risk from inside the tort." }, { "h": "No verdict, no settlement, no benchmark", "p": "Nothing has resolved in three and a half years. There is no verdict range, no settlement matrix, and no per-case value to underwrite against. A Special Master has been coordinating settlement discussions since April 2025 without a framework emerging." }, { "h": "Late-cycle acquisition cost", "p": "Cost per signed case runs several times the figure on newer torts measured the same way. This pool has been advertised against since 2023, and the price reflects it. Entering now means paying late-cycle rates for pre-resolution risk — the least favorable combination of the two." }, { "h": "Trials are not close", "p": "First trials are expected mid-2027 and no trial date has been set. A case signed today is a multi-year carry before the first real data point on value exists." }, { "h": "The regulatory tailwind never landed", "p": "The epidemiological anchor is the NIH Sister Study (Chang et al., 2022, JNCI), and IARC classifies formaldehyde as a Group 1 carcinogen. But the FDA's proposed ban on formaldehyde in hair straighteners, announced in 2023, still has not been finalized. Defendants will press that gap at Daubert." } ], "faq": [ { "q": "What does a signed hair relaxer case cost to acquire right now?", "a": "MTAA-managed Meta campaigns are producing leads and signed cases at the costs shown above, measured over a trailing 30-day window and computed from live campaign delivery. Read the 30-day column rather than the 7-day, because signed-case attribution lags lead delivery by two to four weeks." }, { "q": "Should a firm enter this tort before the November Daubert ruling?", "a": "That is the entire question, and it is a risk-appetite call rather than a marketing one. Buying before the ruling means paying today's prices for cases that are worth either something or nothing depending on a single order. Waiting means competing for a picked-over pool at higher prices if the ruling goes for plaintiffs, and losing nothing if it does not. MTAA does not think there is a defensible general answer; there is only whether a given firm can absorb a total loss on the inventory it acquires between now and then." }, { "q": "Has the hair relaxer litigation settled?", "a": "No. There is no global settlement, no announced settlement framework, and no individual case has settled or gone to verdict. Special Master Ellen K. Reisman was appointed in April 2025 to coordinate settlement discussions across the MDL and parallel state proceedings, and those discussions have not produced a public framework." }, { "q": "Who qualifies for a hair relaxer claim?", "a": "The core profile is a diagnosis of uterine, endometrial, or ovarian cancer following sustained regular use of chemical relaxers, with pathology confirming the diagnosis and date and documented usage predating it. Uterine fibroids requiring hysterectomy are pled but carry materially weaker value. Proof of exposure depends on consumer recall rather than prescription records, which makes documentation heavier per case than in a comparable pharmaceutical tort." }, { "q": "When do the first hair relaxer trials start?", "a": "No trial date is set. Daubert and summary judgment motions are due November 16, 2026, with summary judgment replies due January 6, 2027, and first trials are expected mid-2027. That expectation is the parties' working assumption, not a court order, and it has already moved more than once." }, { "q": "How does hair relaxer compare to other torts on acquisition cost?", "a": "Cost per signed case here runs several times the figure for social media addiction on the same measurement basis. The comparison across every tort MTAA currently benchmarks is published on the brief index, and it is updated from live campaign delivery rather than quoted from a rate card." } ] }