Here are some blog entries from the week that was that might be of interest to class action practitioners:
Class Action Decisions
The UCL Practitioner quotes a recent California Court of Appeal decision reversing a trial court’s order denying class certification on the ground that the court had not allowed pre-certification discovery of the identity of possible replacement class representatives under Pioneer Electronics v. Superior Court, 40 Cal. 4th 360 (2007) (link to opinion provided by Class Action Defense Blog):
http://www.uclpractitioner.com/2008/09/new-class-certi.html
CAFA Law Blog provides a synopsis of a Louisiana federal court decision addressing the time for removal under CAFA and the non-applicability under CAFA of the “first-served” rule, which provided that all defendants had to join in a removal petition within 30 days from the date that the first defendant was served with process:
http://www.cafalawblog.com/-case-summaries-eastern-district-of-louisiana-says-no-go-noto-refusing-to-remand-cafa-case-back-to-state-court-on-timeliness-issue.html
Class Action Defense Blog summarizes a California opinion upholding the dismissal of a claim for attorneys fees under a fee sharing agreement that was not disclosed prior to another court’s ruling on a fee award in an underlying class action settlement:
http://classactiondefense.jmbm.com/2008/09/attorney_fees_class_action_def_1.html
Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog discusses a Delaware Chancery Court decision allowing objectors limited discovery in evaluating the fairness of a class action settlement:
http://www.delawarelitigation.com/2008/09/articles/chancery-court-updates/limited-discovery-allowed-for-objectors-to-class-action-settlement/
Class Action News
Jurist reports on a class action lawsuit filed against the NSA, President Bush, Vice President Chaney, and other government officials for actions in connection with their warrantless surveillance program to gather consumer information from telecommunications companies:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/09/class-action-lawsuit-filed-over-us.php
Tribune Company issues a press release regarding an ERISA class action filed by various reporters, editors, and other employees of the LA Times, a case covered in various blog entries last week. (See last week’s CABWR)…
http://www.tribune.com/pressroom/releases/2008/09172008.html
… and more on the case from Southern California Public Radio:
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/kpccnewsinbrief/2008/09/la-times-employees-file-class.html
Point of Law reports on the settlement of long-standing litigation against the New York City’s homeless programs by consolidating all pending litigation into a single class action settlement:
http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2008/09/nyc-settles-maj.php
Class Action Commentary
A Seattle Supersonics fan provides an insider’s view of a heated battle over a subpoena issued by the defendant to a founder of the fan-organized lobbying group, Save our Sonics, in a putative class action for alleged deceptive marketing practices filed on behalf of Sonics ticketholders against the ownership group that recently moved the team to Oklahoma City, from Seattle Center Arena Reboot:
http://seattlecenterarenareboot.blogspot.com/2008/09/dispatches-from-tenth-circle-sonics-fan.html
The Complex Litigator offers commentary on developments in California case law regarding the preclusive effect of a denial of class certification:
http://www.thecomplexlitigator.com/2008/09/johnson-v-gla-1.html
Spam Notes comments on a recent class action settlement involving alleged text messaging spam and addresses the issue whether text messaging spam falls within the purview of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA):
http://spamnotes.com/2008/09/23/do-text-messgaes-fall-within-the-tcpa.aspx?ref=rss
Practice Tips
Drug and Device Law Blog offers a “Multidistrict Litigation Compendium,” which includes a clarification of the distinction between the MDL process and class certification:
http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2008/09/multidistrict-litigation-compendium.html
Class Action Trends
Mass Tort Litigation Blog offers a link to an ABA Litigation News Section Report discussing a trend in courts ordering a full evidentiary Daubert hearing to assess the admissibility of expert testimony at the class certification stage of a class action:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/mass_tort_litigation/2008/09/daubert-hearing.html
The D&O Diary discusses the “dark new phase” of litigation spawned from the subprime economic crisis:
http://www.dandodiary.com/2008/09/articles/subprime-litigation/litigation-wave-inflection-point/
… and for loads of content on various other legal issues implicated by the financial crisis and proposed bailout, see http://www.theracetothebottom.org/.
Real Lawyers Have Blogs updates a previous story about a plaintiffs’ class action law firm that hired a PR firm to post a message on the social networking website Twitter seeking potential class representatives. The update reports that the PR firm retracted the post following media and public reaction, but defended its use of Twitter to generate publicity about a potential class action as in the public interest…
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2008/09/articles/social-networking-1/pr-firm-retracts-twitter-post-looking-for-class-action-plaintiffs/
… and another brief commentary on the story from Overlawyered:
http://overlawyered.com/2008/09/using-twitter-to-scare-up-class-action-plaintiffs/
International Class Action Law
Securities Docket and Bankruptcy Information Centre discuss issues facing two British pension funds in pursuing securities class action claims against the now bankrupt Lehman Bros. investment bank:
http://www.securitiesdocket.com/2008/09/22/uk-pension-funds-in-lehman-bros-securities-class-action-weighing-options/
http://bankruptcy.org.uk/bankruptcy-news/pension-funds-review-status-of-lehman-class-action-ipecom/ (quoting article from IPE.com)
Legal Pad LA discusses a class action for life insurance benefits filed on behalf of a putative class of descendants of victims of the Armenian genocide of World War I against a foreign insurer in federal court in California:
http://www.lalegalpad.com/2008/09/descendants-of.html
ElectEcon takes issue with a Canadian usury law that formed the basis of a Ontario court’s decision holding a Canadian Satellite TV company’s late fees illegal in a class action decision impacting millions of customers:
http://www.eclectecon.net/2008/09/consumer-protec.html
Remember the Midwest comments on an article in Australian newspaper The Age discussing a possible trend in securities class actions arising out of a company’s failure to disclose facts concerning its carbon emissions. (for a ClassActionBlawg entry discussing the same article, click here):
http://rememberthemidwest.blogspot.com/2008/09/class-action-climate.html
Multinational Corporations links to a Business Day South Africa article reporting on developments in a case filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act against several multinational corporations for their alleged complicity in the former apartheid policy of the South African government:
http://www.multinationalcorporations.info/blog/9675/apartheid-class-action-group-in-us-court-again%C2%A0-business-day-south-africa/
Class Action Politics
Primary Monitor Blog provides a list of issues on which Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain agree, including their support of the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA):
http://199.125.75.56/primaryblog/voting_records_where_mccain_obama_have_agreed
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Climate Change and Class Actions
Posted in Class Action News, Class Action Trends, Commentary, International Class Action Law, tagged australia class action, carbon offsets, carbon pollution reduction scheme, carbon trading, Class Action Trends, climate change, climate change class action, global warming, global warming class action, greenhouse case emissions, international class action, securities class action on September 22, 2008| 1 Comment »
An article yesterday in the Australian newspaper The Age quotes Australian “climate change lawyer” Renee Garner as predicting a trend in securities class actions for companies’ failure to disclose information about their carbon output, information that she says will arguably impact on a company’s value given the likely implementation of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in Australia.
Earlier this month, the Australian government issued a green paper recommending the implementation of a “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” as early as 2009. See this article at Mondaq.com for a summary of the key points of the green paper. The implementation of these regulations seems essential to the possible securities theory suggested by Ms. Garner, since it would provide a more direct potential link between a company’s carbon output and its stock value. For the time being, this theory would not appear to be viable in the U.S. (that’s not to say it won’t be attempted). However, it may only be a matter of time before legislation involving carbon trading and offsets comes to the U.S., and with it may come climate change securities class actions.
As Ms. Garner also points out in yesterday’s article, climate change litigation against the EPA and other regulatory authorities has already been brought in the United States, as have mass tort cases alleging harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions. For an informative summary of litigation both in Australia and in the U.S. dealing with climate change issues, see this publication, available at Ms. Garner’s law firm, Freehills.
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