News

A few weeks after the one-year lookback window of the New York Adult Survivors Act closed, lawmakers, advocates and survivors of sexual abuse – including Bridie Farrell, survivor and founder of America Loves Kids – have introduced a legislative package of bills aimed at helping survivors report cases or launch civil suits against their abusers. This includes eliminating the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases and extending the statute for cases of sex trafficking. It also includes a push to extend “rape shield” laws to civil cases, which bars lawyers from using a victim’s sexual conduct, dress or predisposition as evidence in a criminal trial.

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A New York City jury awarded $83.3m to E Jean Carroll in her defamation trial against Donald Trump on January 26, 2024. Carroll will receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m in punitive retribution. The former president is paying Carroll compensatory damages of $18.3m – $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign. The $7.3m is for the emotional harm caused by Trump’s 2019 public statements. The Manhattan federal court decision comes less than one year after Carroll won $5m in her sexual abuse and defamation trial against Trump.

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A California federal judge ruled against major social media platforms in November 2023 in their effort to dismiss a case brought by concerned parents, advocacy groups and school districts against the social media platforms’ addictive design. The plaintiffs asserted that social media platforms—like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and Google—are defective by design, which has caused millions of children to become addicted to the platforms. The social media giants cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and their rights under the US Constitution’s First Amendment in their request to dismiss the charges. However, the court found that these protections do not shield defendants from negligence claims.

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In November 2023, a federal judge allowed the majority of claims to move forward in sprawling litigation that claims chemical hair relaxer products made by L’Oreal USA, Revlon, and others cause cancer and other injuries. The judge said the plaintiffs had put forward sufficient facts to support their allegations accusing the companies of negligence, defective design of the products and failure to warn customers of the risks. The judge denied most of the companies’ arguments in their motion to dismiss the complaint in the multidistrict litigation over the products.

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Lawsuits accusing major chemical companies of polluting U.S. drinking water with toxic PFAS chemicals led to over $11 billion in settlements in 2023, with experts predicting that new federal regulations and a growing awareness of the breadth of PFAS contamination in the U.S. will spur more litigation and settlements in the year ahead. At least one trial is scheduled in August, when water utilities will make their case that companies that made firefighting foams but did not settle in June are responsible for PFAS-related cleanup costs.

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