Dozens of plaintiffs in Arkansas and Missouri alleged that thousands of acres of cotton were damaged from alleged off-target movement of several defendants' 2,4-D herbicide products, which had been aerially applied to thousands of acres of rice in Eastern Arkansas earlier that year. Our firm represented defendant Crop Production Services, Inc. (CPS) throughout the case.
Early on, Judge Susan Webber Wright, in the Eastern District of Arkansas, granted the defendants’ request for a Lone Pine (phased discovery) order, which forced plaintiffs to come forward with specific evidence of crop injury before proceeding with discovery. Eventually, the case proceeded to trial in Arkansas state court with a limited number of bellwether plaintiffs, and after a seven-week jury trial, the Arkansas jury rendered a complete defense verdict for CPS and the other defendants.
