The trial bar has found a fresh platform for its well-known playbook: your local courthouse. Locality litigation – where cities and counties file lawsuits on behalf of their residents – is now being used to push the same profit-driven mass tort strategy that made trial lawyers rich in the tobacco era. A lawsuit filed in Philadelphia targets manufacturers of “ultra-processed foods,” and pending its results, cities and counties appear poised to leap into the fray with suits of their own. Taxpayers and consumers lose when localities overstep their bounds and punish producers for products they don’t like.  

The plaintiff in this specific suit argues that companies such as Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and General Mills made their food products so addictive that it caused chronic diseases in children. Specifically, the claim in this latest case holds that a teenager developed Type 2 Diabetes at age 16 from consuming too much processed food. 

However, the terms here are fairly subjective. “There is currently no agreed-upon scientific definition of ‘ultra-processed food,’” Sarah Gallo of the Consumer Brands Association flagged. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have essentially created their own definition and worded it in such a way so as to sound nefarious. According to the lawyers bringing the suit, ultra-processed foods are “industrially produced edible substances that are imitations of food.” As any litigator worth his or her salt knows, the law is an exact science. This definition, however, could apply to virtually all foods or none at all depending on the way it is read. 

The ultra-processed foods lawsuit is just one of many in a playbook pioneered by trial lawyers like Mike Papantonio, who famously litigated against American tobacco companies. Speaking about his time as a litigator and his relationship with current Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Papantonio said, “Bobby and I, many of y’all know, we practiced. He was my law partner for a good many years. This is something you hear him talking about all the time. He’s already gone after the industry. When it comes to red dyes and dyes and foods, he’s going to be, I think, somebody who is there for us.” Papantonio cheered on RFK Jr.’s conspiracy-plagued presidential run and expressed excitement that, as HHS Secretary, Kennedy would target many of the same companies that Kennedy and Papantonio went after in litigation.  

Now Kennedy is in a position to build on his and Papantonio’s trial work, to the detriment of millions of consumers and producers of affordable foods. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s continued government crusade against perfectly safe foods has trickled down to the local level and signaled to local litigators that the time for costly lawsuits is now. 

By filing suits on behalf of their residents, local governments are seizing powers that traditionally belong to state attorneys general. Worse yet, local governments bill taxpayers by hiring outside counsel in an effort to use the courtroom as a legislative tool. 

The current cases that localities are getting involved in — and the possibility of intervention in “ultra-processed food” litigation — are just the beginning. Once one locality files a lawsuit, a barrage of other cases typically follow. Trial lawyers flood the airwaves with ads that recruit alleged victims to join mass tort cases, even if these consumers were not actually harmed. They utilize so-called expert witnesses whose testimonies are inundated with junk science to recover higher damages and ruin the defendant’s reputation. These often include industries and widely known companies on whom consumers rely. 

The tactics of trial lawyers have not changed since attorneys general initiated lawsuits against tobacco companies. However, the venue has. Now that they’ve infiltrated the local level, every city and county in America is a potential launchpad for expensive litigation. This accounts for billions of dollars lost in economic activity, increased consumer costs, and a legal system further burdened by politically motivated lawsuits. 

The public deserves better than a legal system run by opportunists and flooded by flawed science. Voters deserve to know when political candidates and those serving in top health policy roles – such as Secretary Kennedy – may be more aligned with the interests of the trial bar than the interests of everyday Americans. 

David Williams is the President of Taxpayers Protection Alliance.