Litigation & Arbitration
Nov. 9, 2026
Nobody wanted to be last: Social media defendants race to settle before trial
Four years of hard-fought litigation, then four settlements in three months. What the Los Angeles social media bellwether teaches about multiple defendants, empty chairs and trial dates.
David R. Sugden
Shareholder
Call & Jensen APC
610 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach , CA
Phone: (949) 717-3000
Email: dsugden@calljensen.com
Pepperdine Univ SOL; Malibu CA
The social media addiction cases in Los Angeles have been litigated as hard as cases get. The coordinated proceeding before Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl began in 2022, and its docket now runs past 3,000 entries, with close to 200 lawyers involved. Then, in the second bellwether trial, all four defendants settled, the last two during jury selection. Sometimes the only thing that gets a defendant to blink is a trial date that won't move.
The plaintiffs, thousands of teenagers and young ...
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