Thousands of women across the country are suing the consumer goods giant Johnson & Johnson over its baby powder, claiming that talcum particles in the popular product caused their ovarian cancer.

The plaintiffs, however, are not working as a team. They are taking the company to court one at a time.

…

“You can’t get to a global settlement until both sides have a really clear sense of the strengths and weaknesses and value of these claims,” said Nora Freeman Engstrom, a professor at Stanford Law School. “And the only way to test that is on the battlefield, which is trial.”