Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Depo-Provera MDL Swells With 631 New Filings In Seven Days

MDL 3140 (S.D. Fla.) absorbed 631 new complaints in the past week, making it the most active mass tort docket by volume. The filings — including Gowens v. Pfizer Inc. (3:26-cv-02700) and Ferreira v. Pfizer Inc. (3:26-cv-02701) — continue the post-MDL formation surge that began after Judge M. Casey Rodgers took centralized control in February 2026. All cases allege Pfizer’s contraceptive injection caused brain tumors and other neurological injuries. The filing pace suggests plaintiff inventory now exceeds 2,800 cases, though formal census updates remain pending. No case management order has yet scheduled bellwether proceedings, and Daubert briefing has not commenced.

Meta Ordered to Pay $375 Million Over Child Safety Violations in New Mexico

A New Mexico state court ordered Meta Platforms Inc. to pay $375 million in penalties for child safety violations, finding that the company’s platforms facilitated the sexual exploitation of young users. The verdict — one of the largest state-level penalties ever imposed on a social media company — lands as Meta simultaneously faces the landmark federal bellwether trial in In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, MDL 3047 (N.D. Cal., Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers), where jurors are in their third week of deliberations over claims that Instagram’s design caused mental health harms to a teenage plaintiff. (New York Times) The New Mexico judgment and the pending federal verdict together represent a pivotal moment for social media child safety litigation. A plaintiff-favorable outcome in MDL 3047 would establish damages benchmarks and liability frameworks for more than 2,400 federal cases and thousands of state court filings. Meta’s defense has emphasized Section 230 protections and causation challenges, while plaintiffs presented internal documents showing engineers discussed “time spent” metrics and dopamine triggers.

Talc Defendant Loses Dismissal Bid In Mesothelioma Case

A state court defendant failed to escape a mesothelioma lawsuit on March 24, preserving a $1.56 billion Baltimore verdict trajectory that has reshaped valuation expectations in MDL 2738 (D.N.J.). The ruling — reported in Slocum v. Johnson & Johnson (3:26-cv-02966) and companion filings — rejects the argument that cosmetic talc claims are preempted by FDA authority. The decision aligns with Judge Michael Shipp’s prior rulings in the MDL and clears the path for trial dates in 2026. Johnson & Johnson faces 139 new federal filings in the past week alone, with state court inventories in Missouri and New Jersey adding thousands more. The company has no pending bankruptcy protection following the March 2025 dismissal of its third Chapter 11 attempt.