Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Litigation Social Media topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
McAllen ISD approves contingent-fee contract to join multi-district social-media litigation
Summary
The McAllen Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a resolution and a contingent-fee agreement Feb. 25 to join consolidated litigation in the Northern District of California alleging harms to students from social media; the resolution passed 6-0 and the contract passed 5-1.
McAllen Independent School District trustees on Feb. 25 approved a resolution authorizing the district to pursue contingent-fee legal services and then approved a professional-services agreement to join multi-district litigation in the Northern District of California alleging social-media companies harmed students’ mental health and increased counseling costs.
The resolution authorizing the contingent-fee approach passed unanimously, 6-0. A second item to execute a professional-services agreement with outside counsel passed 5-1; trustees Rivera and Delagarza Lopez moved and seconded the motions reported in open session.
The agreement names local counsel working with other firms to participate in consolidated litigation that district staff said includes private law firms and several Texas school districts. John Ball, McAllen ISD’s staff attorney, told trustees the lawsuits have been consolidated into the Northern District of California and that the allegations draw a parallel to tobacco litigation: "they were creating a product, in this case, the social media apps, that instead of pushing higher doses of nicotine are instead pushing higher doses of dopamine," Ball said, describing the complaint’s theory that platform design encourages prolonged use and harms adolescents’ mental health.
Ball and other staff said the litigation seeks to recover costs districts incur to expand counseling and related services. The administration said it has been contacted by a local firm that in turn is coordinating with another firm that would handle much of the out-of-state litigation work; trustees asked for more detail about the subcontracting relationship during discussion. Ball told the board he had not reviewed the other firm’s contract with the local firm and recommended detailed legal questions could be handled in closed session with the firms present.
Board members approved a resolution that staff said is needed to submit a contingent-fee agreement to the Texas attorney general for review. Trustees voted in open session to adopt both the resolution (6-0) and the professional-services agreement (5-1). The board did not state a dollar amount in open session; the contract is described in meeting materials as contingent-fee (no hourly retainer), and trustees said the agreement will be routed for expedited review by the Texas attorney general as required for contingent-fee engagements.
The board discussed but did not adopt any policy changes tied to the litigation. Staff said joining the consolidated case is time sensitive because there is a deadline for districts to join the MDL. The motion language recorded in the minutes and stated in open session was limited to approving the resolution and authorizing execution of the contingency agreement; no specific recovery estimate for McAllen ISD was provided.
Next steps identified by staff include finalizing the executed contract subject to attorney-general review and coordinating with the local and out-of-state counsel on case administration if McAllen ISD formally joins the MDL. The board recorded its votes in open session; the one dissenting vote on the contract was announced verbally but not attributed to a named trustee in the public transcript.
