9th Circuit adopted WASC’s landmark decision from last month, allowing more of our clients’ cases to proceed!
We’ve brought a total of 10 lawsuits against Amazon.com, Inc., on behalf of the families of 29 individuals who died because of Amazon’s decision to promote, sell, and home-deliver sodium nitrite (SN), a suicide chemical with no household use, to its vulnerable customers. Last month, WASC sided with our clients in two of our cases, Scott et al v. Amazon, ruling suicide does NOT automatically block liability for selling suicide products.
On March 12, 2026, we received a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in our case McCarthy et al v. Amazon.com, Inc., overturning a previous dismissal of the case from June 2023. We appealed that decision, which was paused by the courts in December 2024 pending the outcome in our Scott case.
The decedents in the 9th Circuit case were 16 and 17 years old. In one case, the child’s mother noticed the mysterious Amazon receipt sent to her email. She called Amazon and they confirmed they had cancelled the order. Shortly after, unbeknownst to her, the sodium nitrite arrived at her door. Within days, she found her child dead.
Amazon knew and Amazon is responsible.
Once again, the courts affirm that Amazon DOES owe a duty not to sell suicide kits. And now the cases of all 29 families we represent head to discovery.
“Though we won this reversal, this is a sad moment for me as I reflect on how [it was] almost five years ago when we first notified Amazon about how it was selling a product, 99% pure sodium nitrite, which was recommended online for suicide and had no household use,” our founding attorney, Carrie Goldberg, told Law360.
“Lawyers and companies are bound not just by the rule of law, but also the rule of humanity.”
Read the decision below.
