Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / The Social Media Trial Big Tech Doesn’t Want

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The Social Media Trial Big Tech Doesn’t Want · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:00
  We are back from NTL with Joe Fantini.
• 0:03
  Mark Rieu, I'm John Robinson. There is so much going on in the
• 0:06
  world of mass torts right now. We're going to jump right into
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  the trial of the year. I think social media addiction,
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  jury selection is underway. When will we see opening
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  arguments, Joe? Yeah, good question, John.
• 0:19
  So everybody's buzzing about this case.
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  It was probably the most talked about litigation at NTL.
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  We had a little bit of breaking news last week.
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  Now we have 2 defendants who've settled Snap and TikTok.
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  Jury selection was underway, but we just got word one of the
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  defense attorneys, one of the main attorneys got sick over the
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  weekend. And because of that, the judge
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  dismissed the potential jurors. They're told to come back on
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  Thursday. So it looks like on Thursday,
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  jury selection is going to pick back up the courts hoping that
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  it's going to be paneled by the end of Friday and then we could
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  have opening arguments next week on Monday.
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  Trials expected to last anywhere between 4:00 to six weeks.
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  This has been so anticipated. I'm going to be heading out to
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  LA next Tuesday. I might catch the opening on
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  Tuesday. Maybe if it happens on Monday
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  I'll be there the day after. But make sure you follow us on
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  social. I'll be trying to report as much
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  as possible what's going on during the trial.
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  Yeah. How does that work?
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  Can we get seats if we're in town?
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  Can we pop in and watch like a football game or is it if you
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  have VIP passes to get into that?
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  It is closed. It's not live streamed.
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  I think it's just talking to the attorneys after the fact and
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  figuring out what's going on behind and closed doors, if
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  they'll even share. Yeah, So that's how it's been
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  kind of been followed in the news here.
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  And I've seen reports out of CNN kind of giving the weekly
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  updates. It'll be really interesting.
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  What I'm kind of paying attention to is whether one of
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  the other big defendants settle, you know, with this little bit
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  of additional time. We have another weekend.
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  We saw a lot of action last week.
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  It's possible we hear about another defendant settling
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  before things really kick off. But exciting trial, everybody's
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  anticipating this, got some great attorneys.
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  So looking forward to seeing what you learn next week out
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  there in California. No one wants to be last company
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  standing, right? Snapchat settled, TikTok
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  settled. We recorded live last week from
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  NTL in the morning and then by the time we got to the
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  afternoon, TikTok had already settled out of the case.
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  So things are moving super quick.
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  Exciting case and we'll see what happens next week.
• 2:21
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• 2:23
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• 2:26
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• 2:29
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• 2:31
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• 2:34
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• 2:37
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• 2:39
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• 2:44
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• 2:47
  All right, moving on to the next one, Roblox, the initial case
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  management conference held before Judge Richard Seaborg in
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  the Northern District of California on January 30th.
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  What should we expect over the next three to six months?
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  Yeah. This is another one of those
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  kind of big tech social media type litigations where we sing
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  this kind of new frontier of mass torts.
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  This one was just formed. Like you mentioned, Mark, we had
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  the initial case management conference, a little bit unique,
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  but prior to the initial case management conference, the judge
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  requested that attorney submit applications for leadership.
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  And so following the hearing, the judge appointed 3 Co league
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  plaintiffs. We have Brian Alstock out of
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  Alstock Witkin, probably most well known for the three M
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  litigation. We have Sarah London who's out
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  of Gerard Sharp. She's really heavily involved in
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  Uber. And then the last third one, we
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  have Alex Walsh out of Annapolis, my old home.
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  So they're the three that are going to be serving as Co lead.
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  I really like the judge in this case.
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  We like the venue. The judge is also requiring them
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  to basically reapply every year for leadership position,
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  something we've seen in other MDLSA little bit of a shocker.
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  Mark Lanier actually did not get appointed Co lead.
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  I can't remember the last time that happened.
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  Looks like he's going to lead up the executive committee.
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  We don't have formal appointment, but we'll have
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  liaison council. Mark Lanier will be really
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  involved in the case, which is great for everybody.
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  But over the next three to six months, we have this initial
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  formation of an MDL where leadership and the judge and the
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  defendants kind of comes to agreement about what's going to
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  be the road map for this case. What's going to be the
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  discovery, what's going to be the short form complaint, what's
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  going to be the master complaint, what's going to be
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  the timeline for experts. So we'll hash that out over the
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  next three to six months. Once we get some short form
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  complaints entered and some real case management orders, we'll
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  see some more filings coming in. Excited to see this one picking
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  up some steam. In addition to Roblox, we
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  actually did have two other mass torts really start last week.
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  At the end of last week, the JPML had their initial
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  conference and we found out some information about both Lyft
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  sexual assault, which is separate from Uber and Cartiva
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  cartilage implant. You tell us about what's going
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  on there, Joe. Yeah.
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  So these are kind of the two new mask towards.
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  We're waiting right now still for the order to come down.
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  Everybody feels pretty confident that that Lyft MDL is going to
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  be formed. They're asking for it in the
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  same jurisdiction as we have the Uber MDL.
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  That kind of just makes sense to everybody be able to meet the
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  requirements with the court usually looks at which is the
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  numerosity, the common defendants, the common injuries,
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  the common theme. So with Uber being granted, they
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  fought us tooth and nail on that.
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  I don't see how this doesn't get granted.
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  So we should expect that probably before the end of this
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  week, that MDL being formed. I'd expect it to be out in
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  California as well. Then the other one that's
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  basically a toe implant. So strikers, the manufacturer in
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  this case, it's a large toe implant.
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  And basically it came out initially about 10 years ago in
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  2016. Then as time went on, there were
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  reports of failure. Some reports are high as
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  anywhere from 60 to 80% failure rate.
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  There ended up being a full recall by the FDA in October of
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  24. The cases have been going on in
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  various federal courts, but now we have some more cases that
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  we're going for consolidation. Where we're at initially in the
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  federal courts is the first trial supposed to be in the
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  summer of 26th that could get kicked down if we get the MDL.
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  My main concern about this one is kind of the numerosity.
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  Usually it looks like the panel likes to see 25 or so.
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  No case is filed before they do consolidation.
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  I don't think we had that number, but since it's a common
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  defendant, common injuries, it's got the recall it could get.
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  Granted, we're looking actually for West Virginia just because
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  the case is so far along. They're not a venue we typically
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  go to for MDLS. 20 fives seems very low.
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  What do you usually see is like the smallest amount that gets
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  consolidated? Usually always double digits
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  right? I can't remember a case where it
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  was under 10 because one of those kind of elements that the
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  panel looks for is the numerosity.
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  So we want to be able to move forward and say, hey, there's so
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  many different courts and judges dealing with these issues.
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  Instead of wasting the resources across the country, let's get
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  these consolidated now. So when you don't have the
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  different lawsuits filed, that makes it a little bit harder.
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  So usually, most times the panel grants the request.
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  Typically we see it 60 to 70% of these requests gets granted off
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  the bat. And when we're above that 25
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  number, that percentage goes even higher to about 80 to 85%.
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  I'm moving on to Roundup while we're waiting for the Supreme
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  Court argument later this year. We had an important decision
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  come down out of Missouri. What can you tell us about this
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  litigation, Joe? Right.
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  So the litigation is really focused out in Missouri right
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  now in the MDL, we're down to about 4500 cases.
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  Those cases are moving forward. The judge entered interesting
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  order out in the MDL basically saying anybody who previously
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  received an offer as part of the settlement program, they have
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  the opportunity to reconsider it now that the Supreme Court is
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  taking up this appeal. But really the action in
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  Missouri that you were talking about, Mark, as expected, Baer
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  said, hey, all the trials should be postponed.
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  We can't go forward with anything.
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  We're waiting on this huge ruling from the Supreme Court.
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  Let's stay everything. We can't do anything over the
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  next six months. We have a similar motion in two
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  cases. In one case, the judge ruled in
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  our favor and that it's not needed right now.
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  We don't need to stay everything and wait for the Supreme Court
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  to rule. We're going to be able to move
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  forward. We're going to be able to move
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  forward with discovery, other deadlines, motion practice,
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  things of that nature. So that's a win for the
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  plaintiffs because it keeps the pressure on the defendants.
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  It keeps their attorneys working, it keeps them billing
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  and spending money. So that was good momentum.
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  Like we talked a little bit before, now is a good time to
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  have conversations with the defendants about some sort of
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  settlements. They have a little bit more
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  leverage than they had with this potential Supreme Court ruling
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  coming down. And then they also have been
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  facing these huge verdicts. So I'm hoping we're going to
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  start hearing about some inventory settlements.
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  It will be challenging for a global, but now would be the
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  time for those who. Are invested in Roundup.
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  We're seeing some progress here. Hopefully we get to a resolution
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  by the end of 2026. Thanks Joe for joining us for
• 9:23
  another episode of Tort Talk. Best 10 minutes in mass torts
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  each week. Make sure you follow us all over
• 9:29
  social media, YouTube, get the latest updates as soon as they
• 9:32
  hit the platforms. We'll see you guys next week for
• 9:34
  Tor Talk.