Sixth Circuit Reminds District Courts and Defendants That Notice Must Be...
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit provides an important reminder that if defendants want absent class members to be bound by a summary judgment ruling in their...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Reverses Class Action Settlement Based on Notice Concerns and...
Class action settlements are complicated. They often take months to negotiate. The last thing the lawyers or their clients on either side want to happen is for the trial court to deny approval or,...
View ArticleSuperiority and Mootness of Injunctive Relief Claim Addressed in Recent...
A recent decision by a Washington federal district court caught my eye because it involved a circumstance I often see—a new development in the law results in a class action lawsuit being filed before...
View ArticleTendering Full Relief to Moot a Class Action: It’s Still Possible in Illinois
When a business is sued in a proposed class action and there is only a small amount at stake on the named plaintiff’s claim, often one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is: can’t we just pay...
View ArticleSupreme Court Decision on ERISA Statute of Limitations May Help Defendants...
Believe it or not, the Supreme Court of the United States just decided whether “to have ‘actual knowledge’ of a piece of information, one must in fact be aware of it.” The Court said “yes,” and it was...
View ArticleDoes Bristol-Myers Squibb Apply to Class Actions? D.C. and Seventh Circuit...
This week the D.C. Circuit and Seventh Circuit issued decisions addressing a question that has been hotly debated by class action lawyers on the plaintiffs’ and defense sides: whether the Supreme...
View ArticleAre Incentive Awards for Named Plaintiffs in Class Actions Allowed? Not...
A recent decision by the Eleventh Circuit struck down a practice that is commonplace in class action settlements—providing a modest incentive award to a named plaintiff. In Johnson v. NPAS Solutions,...
View ArticleTransUnion v. Ramirez: New Standing Decision Presents Strategic...
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a new decision on the requirement that plaintiffs have “standing” to sue in federal court. More specifically, the Court addressed what is required for a...
View ArticleRecent First Circuit Opinion Addresses Strategies for Litigating Predominance...
On August 30, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a decision in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley v. ACT, Inc. that addresses how plaintiffs can satisfy the predominance...
View ArticleAuto Insurance Total Loss Class Action: Ninth Circuit Affirms Denial of Class...
Numerous class action suits have been filed against auto insurers regarding the valuation of vehicles that are total losses. These cases typically allege that insurers are undervaluing vehicles in...
View ArticleIntra-Class Conflict Dooms Auto Insurance Class Action in Fifth Circuit
Last week the Fifth Circuit issued a short opinion that made an important point that does not arise often in class certification decisions. Class certification failed because the plaintiffs’ proposed...
View ArticleDoes the Class Action Fairness Act Allow Appeals of Sua Sponte Remand Orders?
A recent Eleventh Circuit decision on the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) caught my eye. It involves the kind of question legislators (and their staffs) probably never think about when drafting a...
View ArticleClass Action Fairness Act: Punitive Damages and Local Controversy Exception...
A recent Seventh Circuit decision made two rulings on issues arising under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) that defendants may find useful in other cases. First, potential punitive damages...
View ArticleSeventh Circuit: Defendants Need Not Prove Merits of Defenses to Defeat Class...
A recent Seventh Circuit decision makes an important point about how the principle that a court generally need not resolve the merits to decide class certification is bilateral – it applies to both...
View ArticleSome Class Action Fairness Act Remand Decisions Are Appealable as of Right
Federal district court orders remanding cases to state court are generally not appealable, as provided by 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d). One exception to this is that the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) allows...
View ArticleClass Action Fairness Act Does Not Override the Federal Arbitration Act,...
A recent Sixth Circuit decision caught my eye because it addressed an important issue on which I have not seen any other appellate decisions (and none were cited in the opinion). The plaintiff argued...
View ArticleCAFA Appeals Cannot Address Other Jurisdictional Issues, According to the...
The Fifth Circuit recently addressed the scope of appellate jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). CAFA allows federal courts of appeals to hear, on a discretionary basis, appeals...
View ArticleProperty Valuation Issues Are Ill-Suited for Class Certification According to...
A recent Sixth Circuit case addressed an issue that tends to arise frequently in various types of class actions, such as property insurance and environmental cases: whether property valuation issues...
View ArticleThird Circuit Maintains a Strict Approach to Numerosity and Highlights...
I used to say that denials of class certification on numerosity grounds were rare and that usually it was futile to oppose class certification on that ground. That’s becoming less true as some...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Reverses Class Certification Order Because Liability Issues,...
The Ninth Circuit recently addressed an issue that tends to arise frequently in class certification motion practice: how trial courts should apply the predominance requirement where appellate...
View ArticleClass Definition in Class Action Settlement Must Be Limited to Class Members...
Last week the Eleventh Circuit addressed an issue that many class action practitioners probably haven’t thought much about: whether approval of a class action settlement requires that each class...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Addresses Class Representative Incentive Awards and Attestation...
A recent Ninth Circuit decision on a class action settlement, In re Apple Inc. Device Performance Litigation, 2022 WL 4492078 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2022), received significant attention in the legal...
View ArticleFirst Circuit Rejects Class Action Settlement Based on Potential Intra-class...
When negotiating a class action settlement, lawyers on both sides may need to consider whether subgroups within the class need to be separately represented by different counsel. The First Circuit...
View ArticleFifth Circuit Upholds Striking of Class Allegations Based on Differences in...
One of the first significant class certification-related decisions of 2023 comes from the Fifth Circuit. While some trial courts hesitate to strike class action allegations on the pleadings, the...
View ArticleRules Enabling Act Key to New Ninth Circuit Decision on Class Certification
A sometimes-overlooked aspect of class action law is how class certification rules interact with the Rules Enabling Act, which provides that rules of procedure and evidence “shall not abridge, enlarge...
View ArticleSecond Circuit Casts Doubt on Named Plaintiff Service Awards And Leaves...
Last week the Second Circuit issued a new decision affirming, with one exception, the approval of a $5.6 billion revised class action settlement in the long-running Visa/Mastercard antitrust...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Reiterates That Individualized Defenses Matter When Deciding...
A recent Ninth Circuit decision illustrates how defendants can use evidence on an individualized defense to potentially defeat class certification. In Van v. LLR, Inc., — F.4th –, 2023 WL 2469909 (9th...
View ArticleJuridical Link Doctrine Rejected By Sixth Circuit
Federal courts of appeals have disagreed on whether a named plaintiff in a proposed class action can sue defendants who have not injured that plaintiff but allegedly have injured putative class...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Limits Attorneys’ Fees in Class Action Settlements
A recent Ninth Circuit decision clarified that the benefit to the class is the “touchstone for determining the reasonableness of attorneys’ fees in a class action.” Under this decision, the fee should...
View ArticleClass Action Fairness Act Pleading Requirements for Removal Addressed by...
A recent Ninth Circuit decision highlights the importance of the defendant clearly pleading the basis for alleging the amount in controversy in a notice of removal under the Class Action Fairness Act...
View ArticleLiability vs. Damages in Class Certification Analysis Addressed by Fifth Circuit
In analyzing class certification issues, courts have said that common issues may predominate in some cases even though damages would have to be determined individually for each class member. But what...
View ArticleCan a Class Member Intervene After Class Certification Is Denied? Sixth...
When class certification is denied because the named plaintiff’s claim fails for some reason, sometimes an absent class member will try to intervene rather than filing their own separate suit. Their...
View ArticleWhat is Required to Allege Standing in Cases Alleging Invasion of Privacy?...
In today’s world nearly everyone’s name, address and various other pieces of arguably personal information reside on many companies’ computer servers. Sharing of such information between companies has...
View ArticleClass Action Fairness Act (CAFA) Local Controversy Exception Is Narrower Than...
Think twice about whether the Class Action Fairness Act’s “local controversy” exception applies to your case. Even if more than two-thirds of the proposed class members are citizens of the forum...
View ArticlePendent Appellate Jurisdiction in Class Actions Addressed by Fourth Circuit
When a class certification decision overlaps with merits issues, can a court of appeals deciding an interlocutory appeal from a class certification order also review an earlier decision on a motion to...
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