Washington Update January 2025

Washington Update January 2025

In response to the horrific fires burning vast swaths of southern California, AAJ's Trial Lawyers Care® program is coordinating with and supporting the efforts of our friends and family at the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) and Consumer Attorney Association of Los Angeles (CAALA).

We're also in communication with the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers' Charities (LATLC) for updates on what is needed the most. Working with LATLC, our Trial Lawyers Care Committee cochairs created an Amazon wish list. Please use it to shop and send supplies to help first responders and displaced residents.

For links related to providing pro bono legal help and making financial contributions for essential supplies for firefighters and fire survivors, please visit our Trial Lawyers Care page.

New Year, New Battles Ahead
The start of a new Congress feels like the first day of school. It will be important for us to build relationships with new members from both sides of the aisle, especially since we will be playing defense for the next two years.

This month, Congress is largely focused on hearings related to new cabinet posts. And while our principal issue and mission-preserving the right to trial by jury-is not targeted in Project 2025, we have many areas of concern, in particular, elimination of trial lawyers' cases via preemption.

Last Congress, the pesticide industry lobbied for immunity for all harm related to any pesticide, which was inserted into two appropriations bills. AAJ worked tirelessly to help defeat such efforts.

These attempts to limit accountability for corporate wrongdoing are happening on the federal and state levels. Last year, Bayer supported legislation in three states that would give complete immunity to pesticide corporations when their products sicken or kill citizens or cause destruction of crops. Bayer's efforts failed. However, it has indicated interest in expanding the immunity campaign to many more states in 2025. We know that Bayer will also try again to include immunity provisions in federal legislation regulations.

The U.S. Chamber also laid out its priorities for the new year in state legislatures, Congress, and before the Advisory Committee, and chief among them is the mandatory disclosure of litigation financing agreements to corporate defendants. This is a one-sided mandate whose only purpose is to provide powerful corporate defendants with a strategic advantage in litigation to the severe detriment of workers, patients, consumers, victims, and survivors.

The U.S. Chamber, which is only one of our opponents, spent $142 million on lobbying in the 118th Congress (compared to AAJ's $10 million). We anticipate they will continue this level of spending in the new Congress.

We are also ready for the trucking industry's indicated priorities-caps on noneconomic damages; establishing a bifurcated trial process in truck crash litigation; limiting scrutiny of a company's dangerous hiring, supervision, and training practices by attributing responsibility solely to the driver; the admissibility of seatbelt use; and eliminating design defect cases against truck and trailer manufacturers.

We are tracking and actively working to counter Uber's legislative efforts to rewrite the rules on agency and vicarious liability, eliminate UIM coverage, and undermine emerging product liability claims. Uber has invested millions in a campaign to cap attorney fees at 20% in Nevada-a precedent it will seek to replicate nationwide if successful.

AAJ is working on a comprehensive strategy to fight all these battles wherever and whenever they arise. While the temptation, especially after a grueling election cycle, is to tune out or tap out in exhaustion-AAJ cannot and will not. The rights of Americans to seek justice and accountability are at stake and AAJ will not back down.

Legal Affairs
AAJ also has an amicus curiae program that educates the courts on issues important to plaintiff lawyers and their clients' cases and a federal rules program that analyzes proposed changes to the rules governing court procedure and advocates for fair and balanced rules. Updates on each are below.

Amicus Curiae
Recently filed amicus briefs include:

• Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC (11th Circuit) - On January 15, AAJ filed an amicus brief urging the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the constitutionality of the False Claims Act and preserve the right of private plaintiffs to bring qui tam claims, which supplement executive enforcement of important consumer protections and deter corporations from violating federal laws in the future.

• Scoggins v. Menard (6th Circuit) - On December 19, AAJ partnered with Public Justice, the National Women's Law Center, and the National Employment Lawyers Association to file amici curiae brief in support of a survivor of workplace sexual harassment, urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to hold that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) applies to her entire case.

AAJ will file amicus briefs in the following cases, which will have wide-reaching affects for plaintiffs nationwide:

• McBrine v. United States (SCOTUS) - On January 27, AAJ will file an amicus curiae brief in support of a petition for writ of certiorari filed by Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CJLA) plaintiffs who were denied a jury trial by the Eastern District of North Carolina, which has exclusive jurisdiction over their claims. AAJ will urge the Court to take up this important issue and uphold CLJA plaintiffs' rights to trial by jury, which is expressly protected by statute.

• Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization (SCOTUS) - On February 4, AAJ will file an amicus curiae brief in support of the family of an American citizen killed during a 2018 terrorist attack in the West Bank carried out by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority. AAJ's brief will urge the Supreme Court to hold that the consent jurisdiction provision of the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA) does not violate Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

For more information or to request AAJ amicus support, please email Legal Affairs or amicus curiae program page.

Federal Rules
There are more than a dozen rules in various stages of consideration, as outlined below.

Rules Scheduled to Become Effective (12/1/25):

• FRCP 16.1 (multidistrict litigation)
• FRCP 26(f)(3)(D) & 16(b)(3)(B) (privilege logs)

Rules in Active Formal Comment Period (ending 2/17/25):

• FRAP 29 (Brief of Amicus Curiae) - Would require expanded disclosure of amici's financial relationships with parties and non-parties; eliminate the party-consent option for filing amicus briefs and impose new content restrictions.
• FRE 801(d)(1)(A) (prior inconsistent statements) - Would provide limited exemption from the hearsay rule for prior inconsistent statements of a testifying witness.

Rules Approved for Formal Comment (starts in August):

• FRCP 41(a) (voluntary dismissal) - Would clarify a circuit split and permit dismissal of some but not all claims in an action. Some circuits have been dismissing all claims.
• FRCP 81(c) (post-removal jury demands) - Would preserve the rights of parties who demanded a jury trial before removal and clarify that FRCP 38 applies in removed cases where no prior jury demand was made.

There are more than 20 rules in informal rulemaking. The following six could be approved in April for formal comment:

• Corporate Disclosures FRCP 7.1
• Remote Testimony FRCP 43 & 45
• Service of Subpoena FRCP 45(b)(1)
• Default Judgment FRCP 55(a) & (b)
• Privacy Protection for Court Filings FRCP 5.2 & CR 49.1
• Artificial Intelligence FRE 707 (New)

Contact Sue Steinman and Kaiya Lyons or visit AAJ's federal rules web page for more information.

We start this year busier than ever and are committed to the work that lies ahead. AAJ is proud to work in conjunction with state and local trial lawyer associations, to share and build upon our successes so that the right to a jury trial is protected, and all plaintiff trial lawyers can win justice for their clients. I welcome your questions and concerns.