The multidistrict litigation (MDL) concerning paraquat-based herbicides — In re: Paraquat Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3004 (S.D. Ill.) — has become a focal point in mass torts. Thousands of plaintiffs allege that exposure to paraquat caused them to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD). The litigation has featured high-stakes scientific disputes, key defense wins, a master settlement agreement, and now Case Management Order No. 25 (CMO 25, 2026 WL 1707147), a Lone Pine order with important implications for nonsettling plaintiffs and a potential roadmap for effective case management in other MDLs.

In April 2024, the MDL court excluded the plaintiffs’ sole expert on general causation. That ruling left the plaintiffs unable to establish general causation, and the court accordingly granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. But that ruling only formally applied to the four bellwether cases; while the bellwether plaintiffs’ inability to establish general causation portended problems for every plaintiff in the MDL, the litigation continued.

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