THE WHAT? An appeals court in the state of New Jersey has found in favor of Johnson & Johnson, dismissing a US$223.8 million verdict awarded by a jury at the district level and ordering a new trial.

THE DETAILS Reuters reports that the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division ruled a portion of the scientific expert testimony heard by the lower court as inadmissible.

THE WHY? The panel of three judges found that the lower court had not fulfilled its duty to assess whether expert testimony was based on sound science. Johnson & Johnson’s Worldwide Vice President of Litigation, Erik Haas, told Reuters that the decision rejects the ‘junk science’ put forward by ‘purported experts paid by the mass tort asbestos bar’.