Having been focused on several other speaking and writing projects recently (in addition to my day job), it’s taken longer than I had hoped to comment on several recent class-action-related decisions by the federal circuit courts of appeals. Here’s a brief summary of three recent decisions of note: Washington State v. Chimei Innolux Corp., No. 11-16862 [...]
Archive for the ‘Class Action Decisions’ Category
Roundup of Recent Federal Court of Appeals Decisions on Class Action Issues
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action Fairness Act, Federal Court Decisions, tagged amount in controversy, CAFA, chimei, circuit court of appeals, cy pres, easterbrook, federal court of appeals, fifth circuit, fourth circuit, keeling, klier, ninth circuit, parens patriae, punitive damages, remand, removal, seventh circuit on October 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Southern District of Florida Holds that Arbitration Agreements May Still Be Found Unconscionable Under State Law After Concepcion
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Federal Court Decisions, tagged arbitration agreement, AT&T Mobility, checking account overdraft, class arbitration waiver, concepcion, FAA, preemption, southern district of florida, state law on September 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Thanks to New York attorney William R. Weinstein for tipping me off to another hot-off-the-presses decision addressing class arbitration waivers following AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. In an order entered September 1, 2011 in the MDL case In re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, Judge James Lawrence King of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of [...]
Second Circuit Court of Appeals Summons Amchem and Ortiz in Rejecting Class Action Settlement
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action Settlements, Federal Court Decisions, tagged adequacy, amchem, class action objectors, class action settlement, class certification, fairness hearing, final approval, ortiz, second circuit on August 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
As I have noted in a series of posts recently, class action settlement objectors should not be taken lightly. (See this August 1, 2011 post and others cited within). Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals offered an excellent case in point in its decision in In re Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation, No. [...]
… And One More Decision Invalidating a Class Arbitration Waiver Following Concepcion
Posted in Class Action Decisions, tagged ambiguity, ambiguous, arbitration, AT&T Mobility, class arbitration waiver, concepcion, FAA, federal preemption, foulke, new jersey, preemption on August 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
In an entry entitled Concepcion, Four Long Months Later, I summarized several decisions evaluating class arbitration waiver provisions following the Concepcion decision. I neglected to include the case of NAACP of Camden County East v. Foulke Management Corp., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2011), in which a New Jersey state appellate court held an arbitration provision unenforceable under state law [...]
Thoughts on Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Commentary, Employment Class Actions, Federal Civil Procedure, Supreme Court Decisions, tagged adverse impact, class certification, daubert, dukes, employment class action, expert witness, ginsburg, rigorous analysis, rule 23, scalia, statistical evidence, statistical proof, Supreme Court, wal-mart on June 20, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Many commentators correctly that the decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes would be favorable to business interests. However, unlike the Court’s earlier decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the decision does not necessarily threaten to sound a death knell for class actions or even a particular category of class actions. Instead, the decision merely clarifies the standards on which future class actions are to [...]
Supreme Court Says No to Class Certification in Wal-mart v. Dukes
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Employment Class Actions, Federal Court Decisions, Supreme Court Decisions on June 20, 2011 | 2 Comments »
As was widely expected, the Supreme Court has overturned class certification in what has been called the largest employment discrimination class action in history. The slip opinion in Wal-mart v. Dukes, No. 10-277, (S. Ct. June 20, 2011). is available at the Court’s website. The justices were unanimous in finding that Rule 23(b)(2) did not [...]
If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action Fairness Act, Supreme Court Decisions, tagged anti-injunction act, CAFA, claim preclusion, collateral estoppel, frcp 23, home state, issue preclusion, kagan, local controversy, relitigation exception, rule 23, scotus, smith v. bayer, Supreme Court, u.s. supreme court, west virginia on June 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Earlier today, the Supreme Court issued its third of four class action-related decisions for the October 2010 term. In Smith v. Bayer Corp., No. 09-1205, the Court held that a federal court exceeded its authority when it issued an injunction preventing a state court from considering whether to certify a class on claims in which [...]
Canadian Moose Collision Class Action Is a … Go??!
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action News, International Class Action Law, tagged canada class action, canadian class action, class certification, International Class Action Law, moose class action, moose collision, N.L. class action, newfoundland class action on June 7, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The premise sounds ridiculous, but maybe there’s more to it after all. This quote from moose collision class action lawyer Ches Crosbie sums it up: Six months ago when we launched this class action, most people in the province thought that we were a bit crazy. Count most observers from outside the province as sharing that [...]
Fourth Circuit Holds that CAFA Does Not Apply to State Parens Patriae Action
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action Fairness Act, tagged 1332, 1446, CAFA, Class Action Fairness Act, diversity jurisdiction, mcgraw, parens patriae, removal, west virginia on May 23, 2011 | 3 Comments »
One of the more significant issues relating to the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) that has percolating through the federal courts over the past few years is whether parens patriae actions brought by state attorneys’ general seeking to recover damages for their citizens are “class actions” that can be removed to federal court. On Friday, [...]


Third Circuit Applies a Broad Reading of Concepcion
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Commentary, Federal Court Decisions, tagged AT&T Mobility, class action waiver, class arbitration, class arbitration waiver, concepcion, FAA, litman, Supreme Court, third circuit on September 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
My recent SCOTUSblog post on the October 2010 Supreme Court Term class action decisions does not address an important decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which was issued last week. In Litman v. Cellco Partnership, the Third Circuit held that New Jersey decision holding class arbitration waivers unconscionable was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. To [...]
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