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Transcript

Pillow Talk from MTMP: The Roblox Mass Tort Everyone’s Talking About · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:10
  Welcome to a very special episode of Tor Talk.
• 0:12
  We're here live from MTMP. It's been an amazing conference
• 0:15
  so far, and we can't wait to update you on all the things
• 0:17
  that we're learning here at the conference We.
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  Have a special guest with us today.
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  Hey, John. Hey Mark, good to see you guys
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  coming to you live from the Bellagio Hotel at Mass Tort May
• 0:28
  perfect. How long were you under there?
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  I don't know. All right.
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  So we have some very important things to discuss.
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  The talk of the conference so far has been the Roblox cases.
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  What's going on with Roblox? Yeah, that's the most exciting
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  tort. Everybody's buzzing about it.
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  We talked about it before. We have the JPML motion pending
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  right now, the hearing schedule for early December, but we got
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  some more information coming out at the conference.
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  We learned that there's usually 80 million users each day.
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  We think there could be 40 million different individuals on
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  there. So there's cases keep getting
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  worse and worse for the defendants.
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  I think this is probably going to end up being the biggest mass
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  stored in 2026. 80 million users. 40 million real people,
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  that means. So what are the other 40
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  million? Yeah, we think they're bots,
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  kind of fake people going on there.
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  So the the numbers not going to be 80 million, but just think
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  even if it's 40 million, the potential pool of these, you
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  know, children who are being harmed, it's really significant
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  and has the potential for being a huge mass tort here.
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  This MTMP has been very different than past MTMPS, but
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  usually have been much more focused on medical devices,
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  dangerous drugs. What's the theme of this year's
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  MTMP? Yeah, I think you touched on
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  that exactly. It seems like mass torts has
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  evolved. So we used to be all drug and
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  devices, then we got into some consumer products, but here we
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  are. We're talking about Roblox.
• 1:56
  We're talking about video game addiction.
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  We're talking about online gaming addiction cases.
• 2:02
  Social, Yeah. Yeah.
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  So those are the biggest ones for sure.
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  So it it seems like after we beat back that 230 immunity
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  argument and some of the Facebook cases that really
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  opened the floodgates. So we're feeling good about
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  Roblox, but it's so interesting to think, you know how far we've
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  come from mass torts, from what we consider the traditional mass
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  torts that we focused on in the past and.
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  And many of these that you discussed are the people that
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  are affected are children or minors.
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  Yeah, that's why these cases are so important, right?
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  We see the most vulnerable plaintiffs out there and these
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  are the people that can't fend for themselves.
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  They really need our help. So that's why there's a lot of
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  passion about these cases and I know a lot of people want to get
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  them bopped. Has 230 actually been something
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  that we've been able to get past or is it still an issue?
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  Yeah. So that's an argument that they
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  make in every case. It's it's a defense.
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  It's almost like that pre emption argument we see in every
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  case and the failure to warn. So we we've definitely beat that
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  back and the defendants filed motions to dismiss in a number
• 3:03
  of the cases and we able to overcome that.
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  So we have at least half a dozen decisions out there where we
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  beat that. So we kind of have the road map
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  on how to succeed and plead successfully in roadblocks,
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  which is going to be to the next big one where we face that
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  defense. What are the next steps in the
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  Roblox litigation? Right.
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  So we'll have the oral argument on December 4th before the JPML.
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  Usually we get a decision one to two weeks after that I think it
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  will get centralized. Usually looks like right now
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  it's going to California. We'll get that said in December,
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  initial case management conference in January, we
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  usually have a six month build up for the litigation to get
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  going, leadership form kind of some protocol falls in place.
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  So really be the summer till it takes off.
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  But getting it to the judge is the first step.
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  Roblox has just been so, so popular over the past few weeks.
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  It's like just gotten all this momentum.
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  Everybody's talking about it here.
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  It seems to be the the the case of the year as we kind of head
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  into the end of 2025. Yeah, exactly.
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  So every mass tort made perfect, there's kind of the bell of the
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  ball and and that's the one we've had, right.
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  We've seen three M earplugs, we've seen Roundup, we've seen
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  hair relaxer. This is the one dominating.
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  Everybody's going to want to be getting involved.
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  Speaking on the Belle of the ball, former Belle of the ball,
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  Camp Lejeune. What's going on there?
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  Yeah, That was certainly the one that everybody wanted to be in a
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  couple years ago. We we had the deadline.
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  I've never seen more activity in Mass Torch when that was going
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  on. We made some progress.
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  We talked a little bit about the mediation that started this
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  summer. That was unsuccessful, right?
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  We didn't get the cases resolved, but the discussions
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  are still ongoing. The settlement master indicated
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  in a recent filing they hope to have the framework for a global
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  settlement done by the end of the year.
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  Whether or not we're going to have a settlement, then we'll
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  see. We're continue to work up the
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  cases that are going to trial, the bellwether cases, expert
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  briefings going to be done sometime in November and we'll
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  have an argument in December. And then we'll either see is the
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  defendant going to settle the cases before Dolberts get
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  resolved or they want to see which cases the judges thinks
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  are viable to really finalize that matrix.
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  So right now, not thinking we're going to have a settlement in
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  26, but I know they're spending a lot of time and effort on kind
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  of the front with the mediation and then also the bellwether
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  cases. Because how many cases are filed
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  right now? Yeah.
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  So there are over 400,000 administrative cases, actually
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  cases on file and District Court in North Carolina, about 3738
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  hundred. It's a.
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  Lot that's a really big one. You know, we talked about when
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  it gets above 10,000, it's a big mass tort.
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  So we're we're way past that. One of the big things with these
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  cases is actually proving that there was exposure and proving
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  that someone was actually there. I was talking to the folks at
• 5:57
  Simply Convert. Mark and I were were speaking to
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  them and they were telling us about how they digitized the
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  millions and millions of physical records at all these
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  different bases. They went and they got the
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  microfiche and they digitized them all.
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  So definitely someone that people should speak to if
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  they're having trouble confirming that exposure.
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  Yeah, I think part of it is proving that they're actually
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  there and proving that someone lived at a military base 70
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  years ago or 50 years ago. It's not exactly an easy thing
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  to do sometimes. Yeah, that's really hard.
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  A lot of cases have probably been dropped, but I know there's
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  other cases we're still working. And to get that proof, you know
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  that they were there to qualify initially.
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  We got like another day left to go this conference.
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  I think we got to get back downstairs, finish things up and
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  and then head home. But a bit amazing conference so
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  far and and thanks for joining us.
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  It would have been nice if you told us you were here, but.
• 6:46
  If you like this format where you can continue doing it, the
• 6:49
  new version of Tor Talk called Pillow Talk, please like and
• 6:52
  comment and we will bring this back to you on a regular basis.