Reuters Legal

After reaching a $6.01 billion deal with 3M to settle the largest mass tort litigation in U.S. history, lawyers for the plaintiffs got a step closer this week to securing their own share of the settlement fund. 3M agreed to the settlement last August, resolving claims consolidated in Florida federal court that flaws with the company's earplugs caused hearing damage in hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members and veterans. The plaintiffs' lead attorneys at Seeger Weiss; Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz; and Clark, Love & Hutson on Nov. 13 persuaded U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers to maintain a 9% hold-back on the class funds, paving the way for them and about 60 other law firms in the case to be awarded common benefit fees. In court papers, the firms said altogether they spent 364,000 hours and a 'staggering amount of work and money' on the sprawling multidistrict litigation. That included 16 trials, 10 of which the plaintiffs won, before the settlement was released last year. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ganZVtkr

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, faced growing scrutiny from his fellow congressional Republicans, with one saying he ‘absolutely’ wants to review an unreleased report examining allegations of sexual misconduct. Senator John Cornyn said he and other lawmakers should get access to the report by the House of Representatives Ethics Committee, which examined allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. ‘I don't want there to be any limitation at all on what the Senate could consider,’ Cornyn told reporters. When asked if that means he wants to see the ethics report, he replied: ‘Absolutely.’ Cornyn holds a top spot on the Judiciary Committee, which will consider Gaetz's nomination next year. All 12 Democrats on the panel also said they should be able to see the Ethics Committee report. A lawyer representing an alleged victim also called for the report to be made public. Read more: https://reut.rs/3Z4KrMh 

Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's said in a lawsuit filed on Nov. 13 that parent company Unilever has silenced its attempts to express support for Palestinian refugees and threatened to dismantle its board and sue its members over the issue. The lawsuit is the latest sign of the long-simmering tensions between Ben & Jerry's and consumer products maker Unilever, which is planning to spin out its ice cream business next year. The spin out would include the top-selling Vermont-based maker of Chubby Hubby, although experts on corporate governance said the brand's board, a centerpiece of the new lawsuit, could present challenges to the deal. A rift first erupted between Ben & Jerry's and Unilever in 2021 after the ice cream maker said it would stop selling its products in the Israeli-occupied West Bank because it was inconsistent with its values, a move that led some investors to divest Unilever shares. The ice cream maker then sued Unilever for selling its business in Israel to its licensee there, which allowed marketing in the West Bank and Israel to continue. That lawsuit was settled in 2022. In its new lawsuit, Ben & Jerry's says that Unilever has breached the terms of the 2022 settlement, which has remained confidential. Read more: https://reut.rs/3URBQKs 

In today's Afternoon Docket: Indiana ban on gender transition treatment for minors upheld. Pressure mounts for Matt Gaetz congressional ethics report release. The Onion bought Alex Jones' Infowars out of bankruptcy. Kraft Heinz must face Mac & Cheese lawsuit, judge rules. And more. Subscribe: https://reut.rs/4dsTnQ1 #legal #litigation #legalindustry #bankruptcy

A New York federal judge dismissed about 100 lawsuits that claimed Procter & Gamble, Haleon and other companies knowingly marketed and sold over-the-counter medications containing a decongestant that didn’t work. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn dismissed the lawsuits against medication manufacturers and grocery chains filed by consumers after a unanimous U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel declared the decongestant, phenylephrine, ineffective in September 2023. Cogan found that the companies were not obligated to update their labeling with new information about efficacy unless directed by the FDA. He also rejected the plaintiffs’ request that he hold off on dismissing the cases while the FDA considers whether to remove phenylephrine as an ingredient in over-the-counter cold medicines. Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did attorneys for Procter & Gamble, Haleon, Walgreens, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson’s former consumer business, all of which were facing claims in the litigation. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gYjbnt9Y #legal #litigation #health

A federal judge said Kraft Heinz must face a proposed nationwide class action alleging that it defrauded consumers by claiming its Kraft macaroni and cheese, one of its best-known products, contains no artificial preservatives. In a decision on Nov. 13, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland said the Illinois, California and New York consumers leading the lawsuit plausibly alleged that Kraft Mac & Cheese contained a synthetic form of citric acid that differed from the natural variety, and also contained sodium phosphates. The Chicago-based judge said the plaintiffs specifically alleged that the ingredients functioned as preservatives, making Kraft Heinz's claim of 'No Artificial Flavors, Preservatives or Dyes' on labels false, and cited academic studies and U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidance to support their case. 'These allegations are enough to withstand a motion to dismiss,' she wrote. Rowland agreed with Kraft Heinz that the plaintiffs lacked standing to demand new labels because they are now aware of its alleged deceptive practices and face no risk of future harm. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/g_pXF5qY #litigation #legal

The city of Baltimore won $266 million in its lawsuit accusing top drug distributors McKesson and Cencora of fueling an epidemic of opioid addiction in the U.S. , and is expected to seek billions more in the next phase. A six-person jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore found McKesson responsible for $192 million and Cencora for $74 million following a nearly two-month trial. The amount represents damages compensating the city for harms the companies were found to have caused. Baltimore, which has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, opted out of large national opioid settlements in recent years in the hope of winning more money on its own. In 2022, Baltimore recorded 904 opioid overdose deaths, out of a total population of about 569,000, while the national opioid overdose death rate was about 25 per 100,000. Subscribe to The Daily Docket: https://reut.rs/4dsTnQ1

U.S. prosecutors asked a federal appeals court on Nov. 13 to pause their bid to revive the criminal case accusing President-elect Donald Trump of illegally handling classified documents, citing his election victory. Special Counsel Jack Smith, in a brief court filing, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to ‘hold this appeal in abeyance’ to allow prosecutors time to assess the impact of Trump's impending return to the White House on the case. Read More: https://reut.rs/3CCT1ZJ

Republican Donald Trump's return to the presidency is expected to precipitate a shift in the U.S. government's legal stance in major cases pending at the Supreme Court, including a closely watched dispute involving Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The former FTX executive who wrote computer code that enabled his imprisoned former boss Sam Bankman-Fried to steal billions of dollars from cryptocurrency customers has built software to help the U.S. government uncover fraud in the stock market. The crypto industry is pushing for an ambitious raft of policies that would promote the widespread adoption of digital assets and considering who best to promote them, as they anticipate a cryptocurrency-friendly regime under President-elect Donald Trump. The city of Baltimore won $266 million in its lawsuit accusing top drug distributors McKesson and Cencora of fueling an epidemic of opioid addiction in the U.S. and is expected to seek billions more in the next phase of the case. Here’s the legal file:

The former FTX executive who wrote computer code that enabled his imprisoned former boss Sam Bankman-Fried to steal billions of dollars from cryptocurrency customers has built software to help the U.S. government uncover fraud in the stock market. Federal prosecutors made the disclosure in a court filing seeking leniency for Gary Wang, FTX's former chief technology officer, at his scheduled Nov. 20 sentencing before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. Wang is also building a tool to help spot crime on cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the filing. Subscribe to The Daily Docket: https://reut.rs/4dsTnQ1