J&J’s Court-Shopping Win Highlights Irresistible Bankruptcy Tool

Johnson & Johnson’s successful use of a “court-shopping” legal tactic to advance its latest plan for resolving thousands of cancer claims spotlights a controversial bankruptcy maneuver corporations have long employed to avoid unfavorable rulings.

A federal bankruptcy judge in Texas said Thursday he’ll keep a J&J subsidiary in his Houston courtroom, dismissing allegations the company improperly skirted a federal appeals court for New Jersey that has twice stopped the health-care giant’s use of insolvency to settle mass lawsuits claiming its famous baby powder products caused cancer. The case is now set to proceed in a court far from the ...