Meta Atty's Slip Reveals Social Media Trial Plaintiff's Identity

By Craig Clough

An attorney for Meta Platforms on Tuesday revealed the highly guarded full name of the plaintiff in a landmark bellwether trial accusing its Instagram platform and Google's YouTube of harming children's mental health, prompting the Los Angeles judge overseeing the case to strike it from the record and order everyone in the courtroom not to reveal it.

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Feds, State AGs And Biz Groups Back Monsanto At High Court

By Emily Field

The federal government, 15 state attorneys general and business groups, among others, urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to strike down a $1.25 million verdict in a suit over claims Monsanto's Roundup weed killer causes cancer, saying that "patchwork" labeling regulations would harm the nation's farmers.

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1st Circ. Won't Revive Boston's Opioid Claims Against PBMs

By Carolyn Muyskens

Boston lost its bid to revive opioid crisis-related claims against two pharmacy benefit managers, as a First Circuit panel affirmed that the suit came years too late.

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Sanofi Gets Approval For Interlocutory Appeal In Taxotere MDL

By Jonathan Capriel

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi will get a chance to ask the Fifth Circuit to end multidistrict litigation claiming it failed to warn cancer patients about the risk of eye injuries caused by its chemotherapy drug Taxotere, arguing that a label ruling that allowed generic-drug makers out of the case should also apply to it.

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Calif. Sued Over Cancer Warning Law For Personal Care

By Jonathan Capriel

Forcing makeup and personal care companies to place Proposition 65 warning labels on products containing the chemical diethanolamine, or DEA, violates the First Amendment, according to a California federal lawsuit, which argues the practice is costing companies millions.

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EPA Fights Fluoridated Water IQ Risk Finding At 9th Circ.

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reverse a ruling that the EPA's current "optimal" level of fluoride in drinking water poses an unreasonable risk of lowering children's IQ, arguing that the trial judge improperly held his ruling in abeyance for years to await more scientific evidence.

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Conn. Beats Challenge To Open Carry Ban, Handgun Limits

By Brian Steele

Two gun owners and an Idaho-based nonprofit lack standing to sue a Connecticut prosecutor in an effort to invalidate the state's open carry ban and its three-per-month limitation on handgun purchases, a federal judge has ruled.

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Brief

Hawaiian Electric Investors Get First OK Of $48M Wildfire Deal

By Sydney Price

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and its investors have received initial approval of their nearly $48 million deal settling a California federal suit blaming it for the downturn in its stock price following a deadly 2023 fire on Maui.

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Brief

Terminix Wins Coverage For $8M Pesticide Exposure Award

By Hope Patti

An excess insurer must cover part of an $8 million judgment entered against Terminix in a pesticide exposure suit, the Ninth Circuit said Tuesday, affirming that the underlying injury arose out of Terminix's product for the purposes of the policy's "products-completed operations hazard" coverage.

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Buchalter Taps Product Liability Atty As Orange County Head

By James Mills

Buchalter PC has promoted a longtime products liability litigator to be the new head of its Orange County, California, office.

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Social Media Trial Raises Key Product Safety Questions

The trial underway in a California state court against Meta and Google is unprecedented, because it marks the first time a jury has been asked to consider whether social media platforms' engagement-maximizing design can be treated as a product safety issue, or whether it is inseparable from protected expression, says Gary Angiuli at Angiuli & Gentile.

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Aligning Microsoft Tools With NYC Bar AI Recording Guidance

The New York City Bar Association’s recently issued formal opinion, providing ethical guidance on artificial intelligence-assisted recording, transcription and summarization, raises immediate questions about data governance and e-discovery for companies that use Microsoft 365 and Copilot, say Staci Kaliner, Martin Tully and John Collins at Redgrave.

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Judge Questions DOJ Stance In ABA's Intimidation Suit

By Jared Foretek

A Susman Godfrey LLP attorney told a district judge that the Trump administration's recent double-reversal on its executive orders targeting law firms proved that attorneys fighting government action face a real and ongoing threat and urged the judge not to toss a suit from his client, the American Bar Association, to end the "Intimidation Policy."

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DOJ Seeks Power To Block State Bar Probes Of Agency Attys

By Jake Maher

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to pause and review state-level ethics complaints against its attorneys to combat what the agency called "weaponization" of ethics processes, a proposal that drew concerns from ethics scholars for overstepping states' authorities.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

If this month's circuit calendars were a March Madness bracket, we'd struggle to pick the top-seeded showdown. Big Pharma against the False Claims Act, or big business against President Donald Trump's visa fees? A big bank's view of "human life wagers," or en banc review in a State Farm class action?

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Bondi Subpoenaed To Testify On DOJ's Epstein Investigation

By Lauren Berg

The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted to subpoena U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with five Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues to compel Bondi's testimony.

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Analysis

Trump's FCA Expansion Plan Heightens Compliance Risk

By Sarah Jarvis

In light of the Trump administration's record False Claims Act enforcement haul, companies should be especially mindful of a planned expansion in the scope of enforcement and the false compliance certification risks that may bring, attorneys say.

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SEC, PCAOB Auditor Enforcement Plummeted In 2025

By Sarah Jarvis

Both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board saw decreases in accounting and auditing enforcement activity in 2025, including sharp decreases in SEC settlements and PCAOB fines for auditing actions.

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Comey, James Urge 4th Circ. To Reject Indictment Revival Bid

By Emily Sawicki

Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James have urged the Fourth Circuit not to revive criminal indictments filed against them last year in the Eastern District of Virginia, arguing they were fatally flawed because they were brought by a federal prosecutor who was not lawfully in that position.

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Appeals Panel Debates NJ's Duty In Prosecutor Ethics Case

By George Woolston

A New Jersey appellate panel on Wednesday weighed whether it was in the state's best interest to represent an assistant prosecutor in an ethics proceeding, questioning how a prosecutor is different from any other attorney called before the disciplinary board.

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