Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Update — MDL 3060 Docket Tracker

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Hair Relaxer Lawsuit — Free, Confidential Consultation

Where the hair relaxer lawsuit actually stands.

No settlement, no trial yet — this page tracks the federal docket as it moves. One question still tells you where you stand.

Active litigation — no settlement. MDL 3060 underway · 12,381 cases pending · filing deadlines vary by state and run from when you knew or should have known.

Did you get relaxers — perms, the white cream — every few weeks, for years?

That one question decides most of it. It seems like nobody ever told you the risk was anything worse than a scalp burn.

See where I standfree · confidential · 2 minutes · an honest answer either way
What the lawsuit is actually about →

No receipts needed · you don’t have to remember every brand · no fee unless there is a recovery. Court costs and litigation expenses are advanced by counsel and repaid from the recovery. You are not responsible for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before expenses are deducted.

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Marin & Murphy Law Firm

Every inquiry gets a personal review and a straight answer — including “not yet” or “no” — free and without obligation.

Claims are brought against the companies that made and sold chemical relaxers — not against your stylist, your salon, or the person who did your hair growing up. Conversations are confidential. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms. No settlement has been announced and no trial has been held; every case depends on its own facts. This page does not diagnose anything. Attorney Advertising.

As of October 1, 2026: 12,381 actions pending in the MDL, 2 new Northern District of Illinois filings in the sample in the last 30 days. See the member-case ledger.

Lawsuits consolidated in federal court in Chicago (MDL 3060) allege that long-term use of chemical hair relaxers is associated with uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and related conditions. As of October 2026 the cases are in pretrial proceedings; no trial has been held and no settlement has been announced. The allegations have not been proven, and each case depends on its own facts.

This page is about a lawsuit — it is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor.

If you came here after reading that a settlement was close, or that trials had already started, you were reading a page that was not looking at the docket. Every line below carries the entry it came from, so you can check it yourself.

What to watch next

Timeline of the litigation

July 24, 2026 — “It is time to litigate.” The court lifted the discovery stay that had protected the Second Wave defendants (Advanced Beauty Systems, Bronner Bros., Dudley Beauty, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Murray’s Worldwide and Wella) since December 2025, noting that settlement discussions had not shown enough progress to justify continued delay, and set an August 20 status hearing to fix a discovery schedule supervised by Magistrate Judge Jantz. (Dkt. 1984)

June 16, 2026 — General-causation briefing closes. The defendants’ joint motion under Rule 702 to exclude the plaintiffs’ general-causation experts (Dkt. 1828, filed May 5) was fully briefed. This is the single ruling most likely to change the shape of the litigation; the plaintiffs filed supplemental authority on July 17. (Dkts. 1828, 1881, 1980)

April 2, 2026 — The court picks the bellwethers. Rather than accept the parties’ selections, Judge Rowland chose all ten bellwether trial cases herself from the 32 initial discovery cases, excluding cases with only one or two defendants, plaintiffs with a second cancer diagnosis, and a plaintiff with a parallel talc claim. (Dkt. 1781; one substitution at Dkt. 1814)

April 1, 2026 — Schedule through early 2027. Case-specific expert deadlines, the November 16 close of expert discovery and the December 16 motions deadline were set. (Dkt. 1778)

March 18, 2026 — Bellwether fact discovery closes on the 32 initial discovery cases. (Dkt. 1695)

January 8, 2026 — Science Day, with state-court judges invited. (Dkt. 1242)

November 13, 2024 — Which injuries are on the trial track. Ruling on the plaintiffs’ own motion to dismiss cases that did not involve uterine, ovarian or endometrial cancer, the court made those three cancers the injuries with a re-filing window, while stating that the litigation “is clearly not limited to the three identified cancers” and preserving standalone fibroids and endometriosis claims. (Dkt. 946 and n.5)

November 13, 2023 — Motions to dismiss largely denied. The core negligence, design-defect and failure-to-warn theories proceeded; certain fraud-based and other counts were dismissed. (Mem. Op. & Order)

May 15, 2023 — Master complaint filed. (Dkt. 106) Short-form complaints adopted by CMO 7. (Dkt. 175)

February 6, 2023 — MDL created. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized cases from nineteen districts before Judge Mary M. Rowland in the Northern District of Illinois. (Dkt. 1; scope described at Dkt. 291)

October 17, 2022 — The NIH study. The Sister Study publication associating frequent straightener use with uterine cancer was the event that started the litigation. See also: what the studies found.

Case count

New cases continue to be transferred (conditional transfer order 21 issued June 30, 2026). Cases are also pending in state courts, including a consolidated proceeding in Cook County, Illinois and cases in the State Court of Chatham County, Georgia .

Settlement status

No hair relaxer settlement has been announced and no one has been paid. Any page that quotes a dollar figure is estimating. The court appointed a mediator (Special Master Ellen Reisman) by CMO 17 on April 22, 2025 and has encouraged settlement discussions, but nothing has been resolved. (Dkt. 1195) An appointment and an encouragement are not a negotiation with a number attached. When there is an order to report, it will appear in the table above with its docket number. See also: settlement amounts.

How this affects a new claim

Cases are still being filed and transferred into the MDL. The bellwether schedule governs ten cases, not yours; a new claim filed today enters the same coordinated process. None of the dates in the table above is a deadline for you. The one deadline that is personal to you is your state’s filing deadline, which generally runs from when you knew or should have known of the connection between the product and the diagnosis, and in some states is short.

Checking where you stand takes about two minutes and starts with your own memory of how often you used relaxers — no receipts, no brand list, no records to find first. You get an answer either way. do I qualify This page is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor. Consultations are free and confidential, and there is no fee unless there is a recovery. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms.

Frequently Asked Questions

Cases are handled on a contingent-fee basis: no fee unless there is a recovery. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.