Roundup Settlement Announced

Pille_BayerWhen Bayer took over Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, it inherited myriad legal disputes around its glyphosate-based weedkillers, including its best-known product, Roundup. Bayer announced earlier this week that it will settle those disputes.

“Bayer AG, after more than a year of talks, agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to settle close to 100,000 U.S. lawsuits claiming that its widely-used weed killer Roundup caused cancer, resolving litigation that has pummeled the company’s share price,” Reuters reports.

“Bayer wisely decided to settle the litigation rather than roll the dice in American court,” said Ken Feinberg as reported by Reuters. Feinberg was appointed settlement mediator by a federal judge over a year ago and has mediated other high-profile legal disputes, including the September 11th Fund, the BP disaster, and Volkswagen’s diesel emissions violations.

California’s AB3070 promises to address discrimination in jury selection

Sacramento State Capitol building on Capitol Way. Photo Credit: Jason Doiy/ALM as reported by The Recorder, 6/16/20.

Sacramento State Capitol building on Capitol Way. Photo Credit: Jason Doiy/ALM as reported by The Recorder, 6/16/20.

AB3070 easily passed the California State Assembly this month. The legislation targets the discriminatory use of peremptory challenges in jury selection.

Cheryl Miller for The Recorder explains, “The measure would bar the use of peremptory challenges to remove potential jurors on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender. The bill would require attorneys trying to strike a would-be juror to show by clear and convincing evidence that their rationale is not related to the person’s group identity. Appellate courts would be required to review the strikes de novo.”

The next step for the bill is a policy committee hearing in the California Senate.

Avenatti uses COVID-19 as excuse to move trial to California

Photo credit: Mark Lennihan/ AP as reported by Law.com.

Photo credit: Mark Lennihan/ AP as reported by Law.com.

“Michael Avenatti has again asked a Manhattan federal judge to transfer his pending criminal case to California, where he is also under federal indictment, arguing that complications from the COVID-19 pandemic made it impractical to proceed with separate trials on two coasts,” reports Law.com.

Avenatti became a household name when he represented adult-film star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump. Avenatti wants to move the case accusing him of stealing from Daniels from New York to Los Angeles, where he is charged with “tax fraud, bankruptcy fraud and other offenses in a 36-count indictment alleging that he had stolen from former clients.” 

In a six-page transfer motion he argues both cases should be tried together due to court backlogs and public safety.