Daily Intelligence Brief
Daily Docket: Talc, Depo-Provera, and Sex Abuse Lead 62 New Filings
LexGenius tracked 62 new federal filings over the past day, with volume concentrated in four established pharmaceutical and consumer-product dockets and a steady tail of institutional-accountability claims. The Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2738) paced the day with 13 new suits, overwhelmingly driven by Napoli Shkolnik, while the Depo-Provera Products Liability Litigation (MDL 3140) added 10 claims led by Hochman Law Firm PLLC. The activity follows The Lancet's March 31 retraction of the 1977 Hill–Doll talc-safety paper long cited by J&J — a document-integrity development defense counsel are expected to grapple with in bellwether Daubert briefing — and the April 6 disqualification of an Alabama plaintiff firm from its talc inventory, a decision that may push affected claims into the cohorts now being built by Napoli Shkolnik and The Smith Law Firm PLLC. On the Depo side, the intake surge arrives alongside an April 21 systematic review tying prolonged DMPA exposure to intracranial meningioma patterns and Mohr Marketing's April 16 launch of a "Medical-First" compliance program designed to shore up plaintiff medical-record screening ahead of an anticipated Lexecon-waiver deadline.Uber and Wyndham Filings Advance as Eleventh Circuit Revival and Non-Delegable-Duty Ruling Reshape Hospitality Liability Theory
The Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation (MDL 3084) added 3 new complaints yesterday, with Cutter Law PC driving the intake, while Babin Law LLC opened a new action in the Wyndham Hotels Sex Trafficking Litigation — the latest institutional-accountability filing against the hospitality sector. The Wyndham filing lands two weeks after the Eleventh Circuit's April 3 revival of trafficking-victim suits against Atlanta-area hotels, a decision that restored a pathway for TVPRA claims against franchisors under a "knew or should have known" theory tied to repeat on-property conduct. Plaintiffs are expected to pair that revival with Judge Charles Breyer's recently issued non-delegable-duty ruling in the Uber docket, importing the logic — that a platform cannot outsource duty of care to the individuals it onboards — into franchisor-franchisee hotel liability. Defense counsel representing hotel brands should expect accelerated motion practice testing whether Breyer's reasoning travels from ride-share to hospitality, with early amicus activity likely out of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.Social Media, Hair Relaxer, and Roundup Intake Continues as Massachusetts SJC and Colorado Legislature Open New Fronts
Three long-running dockets combined for 17 new filings yesterday: 7 in the Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL 3047) led by Eiland & Bonnin PC and the Social Media Victims Law Center; 5 in the Hair Relaxer Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation (MDL 3060) spurred by DV Injury Law and Morris Bart; and 5 in the Roundup Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2741) dominated by Cory Watson PC. The Social Media intake arrives after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's April 10 ruling permitting the commonwealth's youth-addiction suit against Meta Platforms Inc. to proceed past Section 230 and First Amendment defenses — a state-court opinion that plaintiffs in MDL 3047 are already citing to rebut platform-immunity arguments in pretrial briefing. Hair relaxer filings continue amid a Colorado legislative push (HB26-1029-style warning-label bill introduced April 1) that would require cancer-warning labels on chemical relaxers sold in-state, a regulatory development that could influence failure-to-warn theories in MDL 3060 depositions now underway. Roundup filings maintain baseline pace as practitioners await the U.S. Supreme Court's conference disposition of the pending FIFRA-preemption cert petition and Bayer's Q2 disclosure window.Generated by LexGenius Feed. Signals sourced from PACER federal court dockets, FDA/OpenFDA adverse event database, Federal Register, PubMed, and Google News.
