Attorney Mark Lanier Calls for Social Media Companies to Make Meaningful Changes in Wake of Meta, Snap Settlements

Business Wire

While settlements have been reached with Meta Platforms Inc. and Snap Inc. in advance of the second bellwether trial over alleged addictive behaviors and mental health damages affecting young users of social media, lead trial attorney Mark Lanier says the companies must do more.

“Families shouldn’t have to go jury by jury to solve a problem this big,” says Mr. Lanier. “What these teenagers need is a permanent fix, real design changes that protect kids, not case-by-case patches. Until that happens, we will keep trying these cases.”

Terms of the settlements were not disclosed, and social media companies still face more than 1,600 claims from families and school districts from across the nation.

“We are glad to reach a resolution for our clients. We believe this jury would have found the companies’ conduct reprehensible,” says Mr. Lanier.

The second trial on behalf of plaintiffs known as S.J. and K.D.B. sets up the next bellwether trials before Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl in Los Angeles County Superior Court in March 2027.

Mr. Lanier was the lead attorney in the first social media addiction trial that concluded in March with a consolidated $6 million verdict against Meta and Google’s YouTube on behalf of a 20-year-old plaintiff identified in court as K.G.M.

For decades, technology companies relied on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to shield themselves from virtually all litigation related to their platforms. In these new trials Mr. Lanier and other trial team members are positioning social media platforms as defective products under California product liability law, focusing not on the content users posted, but on the design features the companies engineered to maximize engagement.

In addition to Mr. Lanier, other trial team members from The Lanier Law Firm include Rachel Lanier, Mariana Aroditis and Sarah Lanier. Co-counsel includes Joseph VanZandt, Davis Vaughn and Clinton Richardson of Beasley Allen and Emily Jeffcott and Josh Autry of Morgan & Morgan.

About the Lanier Law Firm

For more than 30 years, the men and women at The Lanier Law Firm have worked tirelessly, throughout the United States, to find unique and effective solutions for their clients. More than 60 skilled attorneys practice law in a broad array of areas, including business litigation, pharmaceutical litigation, asbestos exposure, oil and gas litigation, personal injury as well as defective and dangerous products, among others. Named an Elite Trial Law Firm by The National Law Journal, The Lanier Law Firm has offices in Houston, New York, Fort Worth and Los Angeles. To learn more, visit http://www.lanierlawfirm.com.