Check out our August roundup of CAG in the news!

The State of New York Owes Our Client Elizabeth Crothers

We are so proud to represent Elizabeth Crothers in her fight for accountability against the State of New York for the mishandling of her rape accusation 25 years ago. Our client’s story was recently featured on the front cover of the Times Union, and subsequently, the Times Union Editorial Board published a powerful opinion piece demanding justice for Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s Story: In January 2001, Elizabeth, then a 24-year-old chief of staff in the New York State Assembly, was raped at a work event by J. Michael Boxley, a senior counsel to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (also the most powerful person in Albany at the time). Silver organized a smear campaign against Elizabeth, and ultimately, she had no choice but to resign, leave her graduate program, and move out of state. Two years later, Boxley was arrested for raping another young staffer.

The Case: In 2024, under the Adult Survivors Act – a law which Elizabeth played an instrumental role in getting passed – she reached out to us, and we filed a civil lawsuit against the State of New York. While the state cannot undo the harm Elizabeth experienced, it now has an opportunity to acknowledge what happened and make amends. We’re already shocked by what the State Attorney General’s office is doing – they’ve listed Boxley as one of only two witnesses – despite him pleading the fifth 44 times in our deposition of him. We demand accountability. The case goes to trial in January 2027.

Read more on our blog and check out the coverage:

Ex assembly speaker’s mishandling of 2001 rape allegations faces trial
Editorial: What New York owes Elizabeth Crothers
Top Mamdani aide should answer for what he knew about Dem power broker’s rape case: attorney
‘Jane Doe’ statehouse sex assault victim goes public, blows lid on Albany predatory culture for women

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Law360’s continued coverage on Ashley St. Clair’s legal battle with xAI

Last month we reported that after we sued xAI in NY State Court for allowing Grok to create and disseminate “deepfakes” (AI-generated sexually explicit content) of our client, Ashley St. Clair, back in January, xAI, in retaliation, filed a lawsuit against our client in the Northern District of Texas, trying to get the case transferred from NY to TX. We asked TX federal courts to dismiss the lawsuit against Ashley, arguing that the court lacks personal jurisdiction. Law360 reported earlier this month that xAI asked the TX federal court to keep intact the lawsuit against St. Clair, stating she violated the terms of service that she signed when she sued the company in NY federal court. And last week, we told a TX federal judge that the attorney fees xAI incurred in NY litigation cannot become contract damages in a new lawsuit, asking again that the court dismisses xAI’s lawsuit.

The Texas court has not yet ruled on her motion to dismiss. Another shoutout to our local counsel, Jay Cohen of Blass Law PLLC.

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Is social media addiction real? Law and science collide in blockbuster federal suit

Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2026
Sonja Sharp

Carrie is quoted in an LA Times article from earlier this month reporting on a major federal lawsuit against Meta in which California and three other states argue that social media platforms are intentionally designed to addict children. Meta counters that “social media addiction” is not formally recognized as a mental disorder in the DSM. This lawsuit follows Meta’s losses in two groundbreaking civil suits in state courts earlier this year, with juries in Santa Fe and Los Angeles concluding the company’s products were harmful to children.

After this article came out, Meta settled for $18 billion and agreed to add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of the landmark legal settlement!

“People see these companies as nuisances that they tolerate…What is scary to these companies is that juries have a lot of power.” — Carrie Goldberg

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Flock is just the latest example of using surveillance to stalk women

The 19th, August 12, 2026
Jasmine Mithani

In a recent article from The 19th, Jasmine Mithani examines how Flock’s automated license-plate surveillance technology is being used as a tool for stalking and abuse against intimate partners by police officers. There is a call for stronger safeguards to prevent Flock from serving as a tool of state surveillance and intimate partner violence, and a push for laws that recognize technological surveillance as a serious part of stalking and abuse (hello, CREEP Act). Our Chief of Staff Norma Buster spoke with Jasmine about our firm’s experience dealing with stalking over the past 14 years, and calls on tech companies to ensure the safety of their products before they’re released into the public.

Norma’s quote refers to catastrophic harms caused by tech products:

“If I can foresee this, then I think an engineer who’s designing the product can foresee it too.” — Norma Buster