Chris Placitella on the Jersey Justice Podcast: Toms River, the Talc Litigation, and Why He Won’t Sign Secrecy Orders

Chris Placitella, a shareholder at Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee, recently sat down with attorneys Gerald Clark and Mark Morris on the Jersey Justice podcast. Over the conversation, he talked about how he became a plaintiff’s lawyer, what the Ciba-Geigy case meant for families in Toms River, and how one deposition in 2009 started the talc litigation. He also explained why he refuses to keep evidence secret.

Clark has known Chris since early in his own career. He opened the episode by recalling his first days as a new associate, when he watched Chris depose a corporate representative of Ciba-Geigy and saw how well prepared he was.

How Chris became a plaintiff’s lawyer

Chris grew up in Colonia, which he described as a blue-collar town where neighbors did not talk about politics. “We only knew if the guy next door was the baseball coach or not,” he said.

He did well in law school and interviewed with several large New York firms. At one of them, he asked to speak with an associate and passed a room full of cots for lawyers who worked through the night. The associate explained a contest: a secretary brought a fresh white shirt to anyone who stayed overnight, and whoever collected the most shirts in a month won the pool. “So that’s not for me,” Chris recalled.

He went home to Woodbridge instead and joined Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, which had 31 lawyers at the time. There he worked with a few retired Supreme Court justices and with the firm’s founder, David T. Wilentz, who prosecuted the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Chris said the heartbeat of that firm felt close to his own.

Decades later, people ask him whether he plans to retire. “I haven’t worked a day of my life yet,” he said. He tells the younger lawyers at the firm that they are often “the bridge in people’s lives from one place to another,” sometimes through the hardest moments a family will face. He said he knows few professions that offer that kind of human experience, and that the experience never ends.

Chris also told the hosts that he always wanted to practice environmental law. He added that a significant share of his cases come from defense lawyers, including cases for their own family members.

The Ciba-Geigy case in Toms River

As Clark explained on the episode, Ciba-Geigy was a large chemical manufacturer with a plant in Dover Township, also known as Toms River. Chris served as co-lead counsel in In re Ciba-Geigy, which ended in a settlement.

When Morris asked what the settlement covered, Chris explained that it compensated families who had lost children.

The settlement also established a medical monitoring fund for 30 years. The fund was meant to make sure people who had been exposed received proper medical care from the right experts, “so they could catch cancer early,” Chris said.

The talc case Chris started in 2009

Chris started the talc case in 2009 and litigated it for more than 10 years before it resolved. He pushed back on the idea that cases like this are about money. “You don’t wait 10 years to get paid,” he said.

The case began with a woman in her 40s from Monmouth County who had mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos exposure. Chris could not figure out how she had been exposed. Her father was a lab technician at Engelhard in Menlo Park, New Jersey, who used asbestos gloves and an asbestos block in the lab, and Chris’s theory was that she had been exposed while visiting him there.

Chris deposed the father, a scientist and, in Chris’s words, “a company guy through and through.” When Chris finished his questions, the case looked like a close call. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” he said. The defense lawyer then asked the father about “the talc that didn’t have asbestos in it,” and the father answered that it did have asbestos. Asked how he knew, he said he had done the test himself. He testified that after the results came back, the legal department told him to put the materials outside his door, he never saw the test again, and the company closed the mine the next month.

To find out what had happened to that evidence, Chris sent subpoenas across the country. In Rhode Island, he found the records of a case filed in the late 1970s by a man with mesothelioma who had worked in a rubber factory. In that case, a company scientist and a company geologist had both testified under oath that they found asbestos in the talc and in the mines. The case settled on the condition that the plaintiff’s lawyer return all of the evidence to the defense firm and never talk about it again.

Chris learned that through the 1980s and into the 1990s, thousands of people brought cases alleging that talc used in industrial plants contained asbestos. Every one of those cases was dismissed, he said, after the same defense lawyers who had heard the testimony represented that no evidence of asbestos in the talc existed.

Chris’s client passed away during the more than 10 years the case took to resolve. He said her children were taken care of, and he is still friendly with her husband.

From that case, Chris brought a federal case in New Jersey to give back their rights to the people whose talc cases had been dismissed. He said that case was also litigated for years before it settled. By then, many of those families were represented by the original claimants’ children or grandchildren. “At least they knew at some point, you know, justice was done,” Chris said.

Learn more about our talcum powder litigation and mesothelioma practices.

Why Chris refuses to sign confidentiality orders

“I will not sign a confidentiality order,” Chris told the hosts. “I will not sign a secrecy order.” His reason comes straight from the talc story. If the truth “was not buried back in the 1970s,” he said, thousands of lives would have been different.

Chris said the same thing has happened again and again, pointing to the Ford Pinto case and to sexual abuse cases that were kept quiet through confidentiality.

When a court presents him with a protective order, Chris tells the judge he will sign it only if ordered to. “I’m not doing that on my own,” he said. “I don’t care how it’s going to expedite things.”

What contingency lawyers do

Clark used part of the episode to describe the work of contingency lawyers, who represent everyday, middle-class people against powerful interests such as corporations, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies. Chris described what that work can change beyond a single case. “Sometimes we have the chance to change America,” he said. He pointed to improvements the civil justice system has brought to the country: “People drive safe cars now. The cars are safer. Computers are safer.” He called himself “a true believer.”

Chris also spoke briefly about his pro bono work after September 11, which he discussed in depth on PLI’s Pursuing Justice podcast.

A firm built on these cases

The cases Chris discussed on Jersey Justice reflect the work of Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee. For decades, our attorneys have represented people harmed by toxic exposure, dangerous products, and corporate wrongdoing, including through our environmental litigation and mass torts practices. You can learn more about Chris’s cases and leadership roles in his attorney bio.

At CPR&G, we take on, and win, the fights that others think cannot be won.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by toxic exposure or a dangerous product, you don’t have to fight this alone. Contact Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee today for a free consultation. Call us at (888) 324-7683 or contact us online. We work on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or medical advice. If you believe you have been exposed to asbestos or another toxic substance, consult a qualified physician and contact an experienced attorney to discuss your specific situation. Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee, P.C. is licensed to practice in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other jurisdictions.