The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently underscored that removal practice under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) differs in some important respects from traditional removal practice in non-CAFA cases. It did so...more
10/30/2019
/ Amount in Controversy ,
Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
CAFA ,
Class Action ,
Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Marriott ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Remand ,
Removal ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Sua Sponte ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Statements
A recent class certification opinion may increase the risk of exposure and liability in class actions for businesses that impose fees using specific labels.
In Waste Pro USA v. Vision Construction Ent., Inc., a Florida...more
9/24/2019
/ Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Commonality ,
Fee Disputes ,
Fees ,
Hidden Fees ,
Misleading Impressions ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Surcharges ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
The Ninth Circuit has issued its much-anticipated decision in a class action against Facebook involving alleged biometric privacy violations, affirming certification of a class. In Patel v. Facebook, the Northern District of...more
9/17/2019
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Social Media ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing
Lin v. Everyday Beauty is an Eastern District of New York decision addressing an issue that has divided district courts in the Second Circuit and elsewhere: Whether a federal court may consider inadmissible evidence when...more
9/10/2019
/ Affidavits ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Dukes v Wal-Mart ,
Evidence ,
Evidentiary Rulings ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
FRCP 23 ,
Hearsay ,
Inadmissible Evidence
The Fifth Circuit recently became the first federal court of appeals to hold that employees who signed arbitration agreements should not receive notice of collective actions. This case of first impression among the courts of...more
After winning the World Cup on Sunday with a thrilling 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, the U.S. women’s national soccer team laid claim to being the best women’s soccer team in history. They celebrated their victory at the...more
7/9/2019
/ Class Action ,
Disparate Treatment ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Soccer ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
Women in Sports ,
World Cup
Cy pres distribution of residual settlement funds has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. Perhaps for this reason, the Florida Supreme Court on May 16, 2019, refused to approve an amendment to Florida Rule of Civil...more
Bell v. Brockett is an unusual case in several respects. Most notably, the Fourth Circuit affirmed certification of a defendant class, despite acknowledging that defendant class actions are “so rare they have been compared to...more
Yesterday, the Supreme Court extended its prior rulings looking skeptically at the idea of classwide arbitration, holding that even when an agreement is “ambiguous” about the availability of classwide arbitration, such...more
4/25/2019
/ Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Class Arbitration ,
Consent ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Jurisdiction ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Motion to Compel ,
Preemption ,
SCOTUS
2018 Food Industry Decisions with Bite -
Food for Thought is a review of significant court decisions affecting the food, beverage, dietary supplements and personal care products industry. Although many cases in this...more
4/11/2019
/ All Natural ,
Ascertainable Class ,
Baby Products ,
Beverage Manufacturers ,
Bristol-Myers Squibb ,
Class Action ,
CLRA ,
Dietary Supplements ,
False Advertising ,
Food Labeling ,
Food Safety ,
Food Supply ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Magnuson-Moss Act ,
Misleading Statements ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Starbucks ,
Unfair Competition Law (UCL) ,
Venue
Bakov v. Consolidated World Travel, Inc. is the latest salvo in the conflict over whether the Supreme Court’s personal jurisdiction decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb applies in the class action context. ...more
On March 20, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion vacating the decision of the Ninth Circuit in Frank v. Gaos. ...more
In a case with potentially nationwide ramifications, the Ninth Circuit reversed a California district court’s decision striking a motion for class certification as untimely, finding the district court’s local rule requiring...more
The Ninth Circuit vacated a remand order implicating the local and home-state controversy exceptions to CAFA jurisdiction in a putative class action by former California resident employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) for...more
11/6/2018
/ CAFA ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Franchises ,
Home State Exception ,
Jurisdiction ,
Kentucky Fried Chicken ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Remand ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour
On September 19th, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals resolved a question of first impression in the circuit: whether the availability of the class action mechanism is a question of arbitrability that presumptively should...more
Last month the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court decision approving a class settlement regarding Volkwagen’s marketing of clean diesel vehicles that used so-called “defeat devices” to circumvent emissions tests. ...more
The Seventh Circuit recently upheld the dismissal of a novel putative class action filed by financial institutions against grocer Schnuck Markets (“Schnucks”) based on the economic loss doctrine. ...more
The District of Columbia district court added to the growing collection of orders opining on whether and to what extent the Supreme Court’s decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb applies to class actions....more
4/19/2018
/ Bristol-Myers Squibb ,
Class Certification ,
Due Process ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gainsharing ,
Grocery Stores ,
Mass Tort Litigation ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Non-Residents ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Whole Foods
The Eastern District of New York recently declined to certify a putative class action filed by merchants against the four major credit card providers alleging antitrust violations. ...more
4/3/2018
/ American Express ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Ascertainable Class ,
Banking Sector ,
Class Certification ,
Class Representatives ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Fraudulent Charges ,
MasterCard ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Visa Inc
The ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco Cty., 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017), remain unsettled. ...more
Federal courts have a continuing obligation to ensure that class action certification remains appropriate throughout the duration of a case. Accordingly, it is well established that if class certification is later deemed...more
When class action settlement funds are not amenable to individual claims or to a meaningful pro rata distribution, courts have used the cy pres doctrine to distribute the funds to nonprofit charitable organizations whose work...more
The District Court of Idaho recently decertified a title insurance reissue rate class action, finding the initial justifications for class certification have “not withstood the test of time.” Under the Idaho Rate Manual,...more
Using the familiar “reasonable consumer standard” that applies in many jurisdictions regarding allegedly deceptive sales practices, a judge of the Northern District of California recently certified a class action of...more
The Second Circuit recently rejected the “heightened” ascertainability requirement under Rule 23(b)(3), turning aside a challenge to a district court’s certification of a securities fraud class action. Instead, the court...more