J&J Baby Powder Bankruptcy Moved to New Jersey, Lawsuits Halted

Johnson & Johnson will have its baby powder bankruptcy moved to its home state of New Jersey, potentially threatening the consumer giant’s strategy for dealing with tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by women who say the product gave them cancer.

The transfer will be a new test of the plan known as the Texas Two Step in which J&J created a unit in Texas to hold all of the lawsuits, then moved that unit to North Carolina and placed it in bankruptcy. The strategy hasn’t yet been tested in New Jersey’s federal bankruptcy court.

At the same time, J&J ...