Big Law takes on Big Tech - Does anybody win?

3/27/2026

NM vs. Meta: peeling back the layers

On March 24, a Santa Fe jury found Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, liable for violating New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, a consumer protection law dating back to the 1970s. The jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million, calculated as $5,000 per instance for 75,000 violations.

The next day, a Los Angeles jury awarded $3 million to a family, having found that Meta and YouTube were liable for a teenager’s mental illness.

This may seem to be a grassroots uprising against Big Tech. It’s more than that. There are two themes here: first, the firms who brought about the Big Tobacco settlements 30 years ago and the opioid settlements more recently are taking on social media in a strategic way; second, the First Judicial District of New Mexico is living up to its reputation as the easy button for “nuclear” jury verdicts.

Two mega law firms provided support to New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’ office in its suit against Meta: Motley Rice and Simmons Hanly. Between them, these two firms are spearheading a national campaign against Meta, ByteDance (parent of TikTok), Snapchat, and Alphabet/Google (parent of YouTube), which includes state-level lawsuits in New York, California, Kentucky and New Mexico, as well as a Federal Multi-District Lawsuit (MDL) encompassing over 2,400 individual suits.

Motley Rice led the 1998 Big Tobacco suit, represented plaintiffs after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and represented more than 6,600 families after the 9/11 attacks. Simmons Hanly Conroy won the largest ever asbestos award for a single plaintiff in a case against U.S. Steel that resulted in a $250 million judgement for a former steelworker and have recovered more than $60 million in settlements for victims of institutional sexual abuse.

Together the two firms have worked on opioid litigation, and represent firefighters exposed to PFAS (“forever chemicals”) in firefighting foam which are linked to cancer.

Launching the first social media lawsuit in the 1st Judicial District of New Mexico was not accidental – it was a strategic move. Covering Los Alamos, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe Counties, the 1st District is known for sympathetic juries prone to issuing massive civil awards. Combined with New Mexico’s plaintiff-friendly legal framework, 1st Judicial District courtrooms offer ideal venues for national-level legal activism. A rapid, massive jury award here gives the plaintiff’s counsel tremendous leverage in settlement negotiations in more conservative districts.

In the first three months of 2026 alone, jury/settlement awards in the 1st Judicial District topped one billion dollars. That’s a payout rate twice that of our dairy industry, which employs nearly 7,000 people, and generates around $2 billion in sales each year. At most, there might be 200 employees in the 1st Judicial District. Juries are of course unpaid.

Trial lawyers! Come for the chile! Stay for the sweet, sweet attorneys’ fees! 

To be fair, the payouts do not come quickly. Meta is appealing the March 24 verdict and requesting a stay on payout. Part of the first-quarter-billion-dollar math comes from the 2023 massive CYFD ruling that was originally ordered at $485 billion and was settled this March for $400 million. Attorney’s fees in that case were originally set at the flat 40% rate but legislative and public scrutiny over a $160 million payday for the attorneys has scaled that number down to a paltry $135-$150 million.

In the case of the Meta verdict, fees are set on a different sliding scale: 25% of the first $10 million, then incrementally decreasing to 5% for any amount over $25 million. Further, “reasonable costs and fees” are payable to the law firms in addition to the penalty percentage. The places attorney’s fees somewhere between $22 and $50 million.

The amount isn’t final as there is a second phase to the trial – the “Public Nuisance” phase. In this phase, the state will ask the judge to determine whether the state is entitled to injunctive relief – that is, whether Meta will have to make changes to its platform.

The Attorney General’s key demands include:

·      Algorithmic Dismantling: Forcing Meta to disable or significantly weaken the recommendation engines that the state proved (using decoy accounts) connect children with adult predators.

·      Real Age Verification: Requiring Meta to implement robust, third-party age verification instead of the "honor system" currently in place.

·      End-to-End Encryption Limits: The state is specifically targeting Meta’s plan to encrypt all messaging, which it argues "blinds" law enforcement to child exploitation. It may seek a court order requiring "backdoor" access or proactive scanning for known abuse material.

·      Independent Court Monitor: The appointment of a third-party "overseer" with the power to audit Meta’s internal safety data and report directly to the court, bypassing Meta's corporate leadership.

Winning any one of these points would give other states significant leverage in their cases against Meta and the other social media platforms. It could also cost Meta even more money as the state could be awarded an “Abatement Fund” it is requesting to repair the damage it claims Meta has caused, specifically for:

·      Statewide Mental Health Infrastructure: New clinics and school-based counseling for social media-related trauma.

·      Digital Safety Task Forces: A permanent law enforcement division dedicated solely to monitoring and prosecuting predators on social media platforms.

·      Public Education Campaigns: Massive state-run media campaigns to warn parents of specific platform risks.

While New Mexico’s 1st Judicial District has caused significant harm to the medical community here through venue shopping and the accompanying skyrocketing in malpractice premiums from the resulting nuclear verdicts, it’s possible some societal balance is being restored by taking down Big Tech. If Congress won’t consider antitrust legislation (and it won’t as long as their campaign coffers are filled by Big Tech to ignore it), the courts may be the only path.

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.