Class Action

A Breach of Contract Doesn?t Equal Fraud, and Other Observations

Posted on January 11, 2011
Two colleagues separately sent me a copy of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision yesterday in Greenberger v. GEICO General Insurance Co., slip op., No. 09-1603 (7th Cir., Jan. 10, 2011) (Sykes, J.), so I thought it was worthy of a summary...

Supreme Court Adds a Fourth Class Action Case to its Docket

Posted on January 07, 2011
Instead of a trilogy of class action decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court this term, it looks like there will be a “quadrilogy“! For the fourth time in the October 2010 Term, the Court has granted certiorari in a class action-related case.  Today, the Court granted cert in Erica P...

Supreme Court Set to Hear Oral Argument in Smith v. Bayer on January 18

Posted on January 05, 2011
In my 2010 wrap up posted last week, I neglected to mention one of the three class action-related cases in which the United States Supreme Court granted cert in 2010.   Smith v. Bayer is an appeal of a case that did make my top 10 list, In re Baycol Products Litigation, 593 F...

2010 Class Action Year in Review

Posted on December 31, 2010
As 2010 winds down, it’s time to review the key developments in class action law.  It was an especially busy year for the federal courts, and in particular the U.S. Supreme Court, on issues impacting class action practice.  Here, in chronological order, are 10 key developments from the year that was: January 5 – In In [...

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Happy Holidays from ClassActionBlawg.com!

Posted on December 22, 2010
We here at ClassActionBlawg.com would like to wish all of our faithful readers a happy and healthy Holiday Season.  Best wishes to you all for a joyful and prosperous 2011 (except maybe for you plaintiffs’ lawyers… Ok, you too, just not the prosperous part when you’re suing our clients).

Are Class Actions About to Make a Run for the Border?

Posted on December 16, 2010
According to this December 9, 2010 Bloomberg article from Adriana Lopez Caraveo and Jens Erik Gould, the Mexican Senate has passed a bill that would introduce a form of class action litigation to Mexico.  According to the article: The bill, which now moves to the lower house, would allow Mexicans to bring class action suits against companies [...

Cert Granted in Walmart v. Dukes

Posted on December 07, 2010
Can plaintiffs seek back-damages using a class action vehicle that’s built for righting wrongs in equity through remedies like injunction?  In the biggest work place class action ever, the United States Supreme Court has granted cert on the question of whether plaintiffs can use the Rule 23(b)(2) injunctive class procedure as a vehicle to seek money damages...

The Seventh Circuit is Serious, All Writs Act Allows District Court to Enforce Collateral Estoppel Effect of its Class Certification Denial ? Or ? Don?t $%#& with Posner

Posted on December 02, 2010
In a case rife with lessons, a lawyer learned another valuable one today:  If you’re going to dish out the vitriol in your briefing with certain judges, be ready to be put in your place.  The case of Thorogood v. Sears Roebuck & Co. is already famous for the suggestion made by plaintiffs’ counsel in oral [...

More on Colorado Class Action Trends from the Wash Park Prophet

Posted on December 02, 2010
In October, Colorado attorney and Wash Park Prophet blogger Andrew Oh-Willeke asked whether there were any statistics on class action filing in the state and federal courts in Colorado.  I responded by providing the raw data on class action filings that I could find through the Court News Service (see October 15, 2010, CAB Post entitled Colorado [...

Could Proposed Product Recall Law Mean More Class Actions in Canada?

Posted on December 01, 2010
Debate about legal reforms outside the U.S. can often provide a revealing look at the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. legal system.  For policymakers in other countries, U.S. consumer protection laws can be the gold standard for access to justice and, at the same time, the epitome of litigiousness run amok...

Are Reports of the Demise of Class Actions in the UK Greatly Exaggerated?

Posted on November 23, 2010
Emerald Supplies Ltd. v. British Airways PLC is already being heralded as a rejection of US-Style class actions in the UK, but my reading of the opinion leaves the question far from settled.  The opinion falls far short of foreclosing the possibility of a representative action in every case where the plaintiffs’ interests are not literally identical...

Strong on the Future of International Class Arbitration

Posted on November 19, 2010
University of Missouri Law Professor S.I. Strong, guru of international class arbitration, has two new intriguing publications coming out soon.  In both works, she discuss the academic debate about the appropriate international arbitration rules for dealing with large groups of similar claims and discuss the ways in which multi-party or representative procedures are likely to evolve outside the United States...

Proponents of US-Style Class Actions in the UK Suffer a Setback

Posted on November 18, 2010
(Editor’s note – Revised at 6:26 p.m. MST to include link to the decision.  See below) As reported by Jane Croft and Pilita Clark at the Financial Times and Eric Larson at Bloomberg, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled yesterday that an antitrust suit filed by two shipping businesses against British Airways may not go forward as a [...

AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion ? summary of oral argument

Posted on November 17, 2010
The Supreme Court heard argument last week in the case that many commentators were calling a possible death knell for consumer class actions.  (See previous CAB posts on  Nov. 4, 2010 and Nov. 9, 2010) So does the future of consumer class actions still seem dire after oral argument? The basic issue is whether the [...

Class Action Blogosphere Periodic Review

Posted on November 09, 2010
It?s back!  We can?t promise that it will appear weekly, so we changed the name to Class Action Blogosphere ?Periodic? Review.  But, as always, we have combed through our favorite blogs and news feeds to bring our readers up to speed on a some of the notable developments in class action news...

Supreme Court to Hear Argument on FAA Preemption in Cases Involving Class Arbitration Waivers

Posted on November 05, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in a case involving one of the hottest issues in class action law these days, the enforceability of class arbitration waivers.  Class arbitration waivers are contract clauses that require arbitration, combined with an agreement to waive the right to pursue any dispute as a class action...

Upcoming CLE ? A Primer on Employment ?Class Action? Litigation: Class Actions, Collective Actions, and EEOC Enforcement

Posted on November 01, 2010
I’m excited to announce that the Colorado Bar Association Class Actions subsection is teaming up with the Labor & Employment Law Section to bring you CLE luncheon entitled: A Primer on Employment “Class Action” Litigation: Class Actions, Collective Actions, and EEOC Enforcement...

Practice Tip: Should a Defendant Challenge Certification Early and Often?

Posted on October 28, 2010
This article is about defending against class certification based on illogical, circular arguments in support of an oversimplified “one-size-fits all” legal theory supported on an amalgam of facts that don’t describe any one class member’s actual experience...

Eleventh Circuit Takes a Mulligan on Cappuccitti

Posted on October 21, 2010
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed itself just months after its widely reviled opinion in Cappuccitti v. DirecTV.  In a per curiam opinion issued October 15, 2010, a three judge panel concluded, on rehearing, that the earlier Cappuccitti decision was simply ?incorrect...

Baker Hostetler Employment Group Launches Employment Class Action Blog

Posted on October 21, 2010
With the help of Kevin O’Keefe’s LexBlog, Baker Hostetler’s employment group has come blazing into the world of 21st century social media with its new law blog, aptly named Employment Class Action Blog. The quality entries submitted so far include case summaries, practice tips, legislative updates, and analysis covering a variety of employment class action-related topics...

Danger! Moose Crossing

Posted on October 19, 2010
According to this article from The Canadian Press and this one from the Ottawa Citizen, a lawyer in St. Johns, Newfoundland is considering suing the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador on behalf of a would-be class of people injured in collisions with moose...

Tolling the Summer Away

Posted on October 18, 2010
Editor’s note: The following entry comes from my colleague, Raj Chohan, who has agreed to become a regular contributor to ClassActionBlawg.com.  Raj joined Baker Hostetler this fall after graduating from the DU Sturm College of Law in May and successfully completing the Colorado bar exam in July...

Colorado Class Action Filing Trends

Posted on October 15, 2010
I must have more readers than I thought, and some quality readers at that!  Andrew Oh-Willeke, Denver lawyer and author of the blog Wash Park Prophet, posted this question as a comment to one of my recent posts, and it seemed like a great topic deserving of its own post: Do you know of any [...

Upcoming Law Blogging/Social Media Events in Denver

Posted on October 13, 2010
I have returned to the world of blogging to find a veritable hurricane of blawg-related activities going on in Denver.  Here are some upcoming events of note: Guru of social media and the law, Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog, will be in Denver this weekend...

The Class Action Playbook: the Essential Reference for Class Action Practitioners

Posted on October 12, 2010
Andrew Trask, author of the blog Class Action Countermeasures, recently sent me an advance copy of a new book that he co-authored with O’Melveny partner Brian Anderson: The Class Action Playbook (Oxford University Press 2010).  The title is self-explanatory, and the book lives up to its name...

ClassActionBlawg.com is Back, More Powerful than Ever Before

Posted on October 12, 2010
To you, my very, very loyal reader (I have in mind a picture of Flight of the Conchords superfan, Mel, who by the way has her own blog): If you really have been waiting in anticipation for this post, you really should consider therapy.  However, when I began my extended hiatus in June, I did promise to resume blogging this fall, and I [...

ClassActionBlawg.com Is On ?Sabbatical?

Posted on June 08, 2010
To you, the loyal reader (and by now I mean that literally): My current case load and other writing commitments have left me unable to post new content on ClassActionBlawg.com with any reasonable level of regularity, so I have decided to take the summer off...

Elena Kagan and Class Actions

Posted on May 19, 2010
When the Supreme Court nomination of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor was announced, I put together this summary of her fairly significant judicial record on class action issues.  Finding any record on class action issues for current nominee Elena Kagan has been more of a challenge, since she has not served as a judge...

Class Arbitration as a Global Class Action Forum? Supreme Court Says No.

Posted on May 11, 2010
The Supreme Court recently issued a decision addressing the issue of class arbitration.  In Stolt-Nielson S.A. v.  Animalfeeds International Corp., No. 08-1198 (April 27, 2010), an antitrust class action involving allegations of illegal price-fixing by international shipping companies, the Court held that an arbitration panel’s decision to force class arbitration was invalid because the arbitration agreement was silent about whether arbitration could proceed [...

Strategies for Pursuing Appellate Review under FRCP 23(f), Or Not, Part Deux

Posted on May 11, 2010
Strafford Publications is scheduling an encore presentation of the riveting CLE teleconference: Rule 23(f) Class Certification Appeals Strategies for Pursuing or Opposing Appellate Review in the Absence of Clear Standards This program was first presented in January 2009, and apparently folks liked it enough to justify a reprise...

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