The Next Social Media Addiction Trial Opens October 28 in Los Angeles — Two Teenagers, One Jury, and Only Meta and Snap Left After YouTube and TikTok Settled. The First Jury Awarded $6 Million.

As of October 16, 2026, the next social media addiction lawsuit trial is set to begin on October 28, 2026 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, before Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl. It is the second bellwether trial in Social Media Cases, JCCP 5255, California's state-court coordinated proceeding, filed on October 24, 2022. Two young plaintiffs, known in the court record only as S.J. and K.D.B., will have their cases heard by one jury.

The defendant list has shrunk. Both plaintiffs settled with TikTok in August. On September 25, YouTube settled with both, on undisclosed terms, according to the Daily Journal, which reported that the settlement left “Meta and Snapchat to face trial next month.” Meta and Snap deny liability. YouTube and TikTok remain defendants in the wider coordinated litigation; they are out of this trial only. Our social media addiction lawsuit page tracks the whole litigation.

Judge Kuhl joined the two cases over the companies' objection. Meta's lawyer told the court in August that two plaintiffs would be “hopelessly confusing” for jurors. Her August 28 order disagreed: “the differences between the Plaintiffs’ claims are manageable using appropriate jury management techniques and that jury confusion can be avoided.” A third plaintiff, P.M-Y., was to be tried in October as well but dismissed her lawsuit, Bloomberg Law reported.

The jury will decide the claims of two people, not thousands. Like the first trial, the case is built on the allegation that the platforms were designed in ways that harmed young users' mental health; the companies dispute that. If the jurors find against Meta or Snap, they can award damages to S.J. and K.D.B. The Daily Journal reported that the lawyers are already arguing over what Meta could tell jurors about more recent safety measures and a recent settlement “if the case reaches a punitive damages phase” — so a second phase on punitive damages is possible, but only after a finding against a company.

The first trial shows what such a verdict looks like. On March 25, 2026, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and YouTube were negligent and failed to warn, in the case of a young woman identified as K.G.M. CNBC reported that the jury found their negligence was a “substantial factor” in her mental health harms. Compensatory damages were $3 million, 70% to Meta and 30% to YouTube; punitive damages added another $3 million — $2.1 million from Meta and $900,000 from YouTube. At the time Meta said it was “evaluating our legal options” and Google said it planned to appeal.

Has there been a verdict in the social media case? Yes — that one, the $6 million K.G.M. verdict. The second scheduled trial never reached a jury: a Florida teenager identified as R.K.C. settled with Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube and dismissed his claims against Meta “without payment,” and the July trial was canceled. What the October trial cannot do is resolve anyone else's case. Judge Kuhl wrote that the joint trial will let the court and the parties evaluate the fairness of trying more than one plaintiff's claim at once — a question about procedure for the remaining cases, not a ruling on them.

Directly, only the two plaintiffs and the two remaining defendants. Indirectly, everyone with a pending case: Judge Kuhl said in September, “Although there are 3,000 cases in this grouping, we're going to try and find a way to take them to trial.” The separate federal litigation, MDL No. 3047 before Chief Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, had 3,824 cases pending on October 1, 2026, out of 4,009 filed in total, according to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Bellwether trials are test cases: their results inform both sides, but they do not set the value of other claims.

What is the maximum payout per person in a social media addiction lawsuit? None of the court records or reports we read sets a per-person or maximum amount. These are individual lawsuits, not a class action with a fund. The only jury figure so far is K.G.M.'s $6 million, for one plaintiff; the settlements by YouTube, TikTok and Snap with individual plaintiffs were on undisclosed terms.

How to get compensated for social media addiction? In this litigation, only by bringing an individual claim or by being part of a case that settles or wins at trial. There is no claim form attached to the October trial. The separate settlement Meta reached with state attorneys general pays states, not families — see our explainer on that deal.

These are the dated steps in the sources, as of October 16, 2026. All of them can move.

• October 28, 2026 — trial of S.J. and K.D.B. against Meta and Snap is set to begin in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
• November 10, 2026 — tentative date for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, under a scheduling agreement disclosed at the September 29 final status conference, where Judge Kuhl rejected Meta's bid to block his testimony.
• November 19, 2026 — tentative date for Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is also expected to testify; no date had been set. The judge allowed the parties to work on video arrangements for these executives, but not for other witnesses such as whistleblowers.
• Before the year-end holidays — Judge Kuhl was confident, on the parties' timing assurances, that the trial would finish before the end-of-year breaks.
• End of 2026 — deadline for plaintiffs to ask for a joint trial of the next three cases.
• March 16, 2027 — next bellwether trials, for the three remaining cases from the first discovery pool.
• August 6, 2027 — another bellwether trial, drawn from a newer pool of eight cases.

Still open before the jury is sworn: the defense wants more of K.D.B.'s journals — Meta's lawyer cited more than 70 references to journaling in Instagram messages from 2023 to 2025 — and records on S.J.'s apparent use of ChatGPT. Judge Kuhl said she would keep considering the journal request and told the parties to confer on the ChatGPT issue; she refused to reopen the depositions merely because time had passed. We found no later report on either ruling.

Treat any message offering a payment from the October trial as suspicious. A trial does not create a fund for the public: if the jury awards damages, they go to the two plaintiffs, and the earlier settlements with YouTube, TikTok and Snap were private and undisclosed. None of the sources we read describes a claim form, an administrator or a sign-up for this trial. A text or email saying you can “claim your share” of the social media addiction trial, or asking for a fee or bank login to “verify” eligibility, is not coming from the court.

Advertising that asks whether your child used Instagram or Snapchat is a different thing: it is lawyers looking for new clients for individual lawsuits. Which law firm is best for a social media lawsuit? This page cannot tell you, and the trial result will not either. In California, the State Bar certifies lawyer referral services; lawyers they refer “are required to be in good standing with the State Bar and hold professional liability insurance” and offer an initial consultation for a reduced fee or no fee.

Three tracks run side by side, and they are easy to mix up. The Los Angeles state-court cases (JCCP 5255) are individual claims before Judge Kuhl; that is where the October 28 trial sits. The federal MDL in Oakland gathers the federal individual and school-district cases. And the state attorneys general had their own case against Meta, which Meta settled in August 2026 — money that goes to states, with nothing for individuals to file. Because the July trial was canceled, the October trial is set to be the first Los Angeles jury trial against Meta since the K.G.M. verdict. Our case page will carry the result.