As promised in my post late last week, the Baker Hostetler client alert on last week’s Second Circuit decision in In Re American Express Merchants’ Litigation, No. 06-1871 (2d Cir., Feb. 1, 2012) (Amex III) was released today. Here is a link to the alert, authored by New York partner Deborah Renner and Columbus associate Jennifer Vessells, [...]
Archive for the ‘Class Action News’ Category
… More on Amex III
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action News, Class Action Trends, Federal Court Decisions, tagged american express merchants, amex III, arbitration waiver, class arbitration, concepcion, FAA, stolt-nielsen on February 7, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Netherlands Court Reaffirms Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in Approving Collective Settlement
Posted in Class Action News, International Class Action Law, tagged amsterdam court of appeal, collective action, collective settlement, converium, extraterritorial, International Class Action Law, netherlands, scheurleer, transnational, tzankova on January 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Those of you who attended last month’s 5th Annual Conference on the Globalization of Class Actions (or followed my series of posts summarizing the conference) will know that the Netherlands has been on the forefront of global mass dispute resolution as a result of its statute allowing for collective settlements. Today, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal issued a ruling dismissing [...]
Colorado Supreme Court Issues Four Decisions Addressing Class Action Issues
Posted in Class Action Decisions, Class Action News, Class Action Trends, Colorado Civil Procedure, Colorado Class Action News, tagged asbestos, bp america, burden of proof, causation, class cert, class certification, class-wide proof, colorado supreme court, common evidence, common proof, crcp 23, garcia, jackson, medved, patterson, preponderance, reliance, reyher, rigorous analysis, rule 23, state farm, unocal on October 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Colorado Supreme Court’s highly anticipated rulings in four class actions were announced earlier today. Here are links to the opinions. I’ll have more commentary on the four decisions soon: No. 09SC668 – Jackson v. Unocal Corp. – Judgment Reversed (class certification upheld) - Addresses the burden of proof on class certification. No. 09SC1080 – Garcia v. [...]
Disgraced Class Action Lawyer Enjoying the Good Life
Posted in Class Action News, class action reform, tagged class action, class action reform, tort reform, scandal, lerach, fee splitting, kick-back, milberg, coia, enron on October 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A recent article by Ann Woolner of Bloomberg offers an interesting profile of class action pioneer William Lerach, who has been traveling the world and relaxing in his seaside mansion since his release from prison last year. Lerach was convicted in 2007 for his part in a kick-back scheme in which lawyers agreed to split fees with clients in order to convince [...]
Supreme Court Considers New Attack on Enforceability of Arbitration Agreements
Posted in Class Action News, Supreme Court Decisions, tagged arbitration, arbitration agreement, class action, class action waiver, class arbitration waiver, compucredit, concepcion, consumer class action, consumer rights, croa, FAA, federal arbitration, greenwood, oral argument, scotus, Supreme Court on October 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It has only been a few months since the Supreme Court issued its decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, holding that state laws holding class arbitration waivers unenforceable as against public policy are preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), and the Court is already considering a new case involving the enforceability of arbitration agreements in consumer contracts. [...]
More on Mexico’s New Class Action Law
Posted in Class Action News, class action reform, Class Action Trends, International Class Action Law, tagged class action frontier, Class Action Legislation, cross-border class action, International Class Action Law, latin america, latin america class action, mexican class action, mexican collective action, mexico, transnational class action on October 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A recent CAB post entitled Mexico Joins the Class Action Club provided an update from Mexican attorney Jorge de Hoyos Walther on the passage of recent legislation in Mexico introducing class actions. If that post piqued your interest, check out this new article authored by Catherine Dunn for Corporate Counsel magazine (available at Law.com) entitled Mexico’s [...]
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 [...]
NY Times vs. Forbes: Is Concepcion a Blow to Consumer Rights or to Trial Lawyers’ Pocketbooks?
Posted in Class Action News, class action reform, Class Action Trends, Supreme Court Decisions, tagged arbitration, arbitration clause, AT&T Mobility, breyer, class arbitration, class arbitration waiver, concepcion, consumer class action, consumer rights, scalia on May 13, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Two op-eds published today highlight the philosophical debate over the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. The first, published by the New York Times, argues that the decision is a “devastating blow to consumer rights” because it makes it practically impossible for many consumers to seek vindication of their [...]
Wal-Mart v. Dukes Oral Argument Transcript
Posted in Class Action News, Employment Class Actions, Supreme Court Decisions, tagged back pay, commonality, dukes, employment discrimination, ginsburg, injunctive relief, kagan, oral argument, predominance, rule 23(b)(2), scalia, sotomayor, Supreme Court, typicality, wal-mart on March 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The Wal-Mart v. Dukes argument was held as scheduled today. Here is a Wal-Mart v. Dukes Oral Argument Transcript. Some initial observations: The beginning of the defendant’s argument was focused on the proper standard for reviewing whether the plaintiff had sufficiently common evidence of a uniform policy. It was not until later in the defendant’s [...]


When 36 AGs Object to Your Class Action Settlement, That’s Not a Good Sign
Posted in CAFA Requirements, Class Action News, Commentary, tagged amicus, amicus brief, appropriate government official, attorney general, CAFA, class action notice, coupon settlement, directbuy, parens patriae on April 12, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Rita Robinson, who writes the Boomer Consumer blog for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, posted an entry titled Attorneys general oppose DirectBuy’s class-action lawsuit settlement discussing an amicus brief filed by Attorneys General from 34 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia objecting to a proposed settlement in a consumer fraud class action brought against online wholesale club DirectBuy, Inc. in the U.S. [...]
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