AAJ Updates

“Make it safe.” It’s a reasonable and simple request.

Corporations claim they make “the best” products. Yet, many corporations market products that are unsafe, improperly tested, or based on false data. Our portfolio of issues continues to balloon as powerful corporate interests seek new ways to evade accountability. If they won’t make it safe, we won’t ever stop our advocacy for the rights of injured workers, patients, and consumers.

Social Media Products
Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act allows social media companies and digital platforms to avoid responsibility for massive and systemic harm caused by dangerously designed social media products. AAJ supports legislation to repeal Section 230 immunity and, along with AAJ members and their clients, is calling for the prioritization of people’s rights and safety over Big Tech’s profits.

On September 15, clients of AAJ members testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about what happened to their children after they were repeatedly exposed to dangerous online content. Their stories are powerful. This kind of personal testimony can make a difference and it is often the moment that clinches the final decisions of lawmakers who can make positive change.

AAJ has also worked with members, clients, and the media to spotlight this issue. On September 12, The New York Times published a powerful article about a family whose son tragically killed himself after he suffered years of abuse on Roblox, a gaming platform marketed to kids 13 and younger.

For more information on this story and how to spread the word to your contacts and clients about access-to-justice issues, visit AAJ’s online grassroots campaign, Take Justice Back®.

Take Justice Back now features a series of short videos on topics ranging from Section 230 immunity to insurance company profits to “nuclear” verdicts.

Ending Forced Arbitration
On September 15, Senator Richard Blumenthal and Congressman Hank Johnson reintroduced the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act. This legislation would eliminate pre-dispute forced arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, and civil rights claims.

AAJ will continue to advocate to end forced arbitration in all contexts until all Americans are protected from this rigged, secretive process that stacks the deck against consumers, workers, and victims. Forced arbitration denies injured people their constitutional right to a jury trial. This must change, and AAJ will continue to lead the charge.

We made additional progress earlier this month when, on September 3, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on protecting older Americans in the workplace, and Senators Gillibrand, Durbin, Grassley, and Graham reintroduced the bipartisan Protecting Older Americans Act (S. 2703,) which would end the use of forced arbitration for workers who have been subjected to age discrimination.

Legal Affairs: Amicus Curiae Briefs

AAJ’s Amicus Curiae program is a critical part of our advocacy efforts to ensure that access to justice, the right to trial by jury, and public policy arguments are rigorously supported in federal and state courts. Our most recent amicus filings include:

· Puris v. TikTok (2d Cir.) – On September 2, AAJ filed a joint brief with the National Women’s Law Center and National Employment Lawyers Association urging the Second Circuit to hold that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (EFAA) invalidates the arbitration agreement between TikTok and the plaintiff, Ms. Puris, as to her entire case, not only her sexual harassment or retaliation claims.

· Walker v. Uber Techs, Inc., (D.C. Cir.) – On September 2, AAJ filed an amicus brief authored by Gupta Wessler LLP in support of the plaintiff in a case that asks whether the district court correctly held that the plaintiff did not form a contract with Uber merely by riding in an Uber when the only notice that doing so was a text message that was unseen, not expected, and was insufficient to conspicuously draw his attention to the terms.

· Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety (US) – On September 3, AAJ filed an amicus brief authored by Robert S. Peck of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, P.C., urging the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the availability of individual-capacity monetary damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA).

· Olivier v. City of Brandon, Miss. (US) – On September 9, AAJ joined a brief authored by the Human Rights Defense Center in support of a petitioner seeking to reverse a Fifth Circuit decision that would bar numerous plaintiffs, including incarcerated people, from seeking prospective relief through Section 1983 claims when deprived of their constitutional rights.

AAJ’s website provides access to all our amicus curiae briefs, and members can request an amicus curiae brief.

Legal Affairs: Federal Rules
AAJ has a new list server for members to collaborate on federal rules issues, with emphasis on the rules currently in the public comment phase. There are five proposed civil rules amendments and two proposed evidence amendments under consideration by the Committee on Practice and Procedure. The list server participants will also work on affirmative rules suggestions and are currently considering challenges related to directed medical exams.

Member input is welcome. To learn more about this new list server, please contact Susan Steinman at AAJ. More information about AAJ’s Federal Rules Program, our filed comments, and our Rules Tracker can be found on AAJ’s website.

Together We are Strong
Thank you for all you do to preserve the rule of law and to fight for the rights of injured workers, patients, and consumers. Your involvement makes AAJ and trial lawyer associations nationwide a strong community, united in the quest to protect the right to trial by jury.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact me.