In July 2024, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of class certification for a group of Chinese investors who were allegedly duped into entering a Ponzi-like investment scheme to purchase two dozen golf courses and other...more
On April 15, 2024, the United States Supreme Court declined certiorari in the case of National ATM Council, Inc. v. Visa Inc. The central issue raised in the petition was the depth of analysis a court must conduct at the...more
Takeaway: Class certification of damages claims frequently turns on whether individual issues predominate over common issues under Federal Rule 23(b)(3). Class plaintiffs facing predominance problems may attempt to circumvent...more
The full text of each summary can be found below through the Table of Contents links. Highlights from this issue include...more
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent ruling in In re Brinker Data Incident Litigation (“Brinker”) is the first time that a federal circuit court has ruled on a lower court’s grant of class certification in a data breach class action...more
The 2023 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey found that the second most successful class action defense is the lack of any actual injury suffered by some or all of the class. It also found that this defense made a big jump in...more
A sometimes-overlooked aspect of class action law is how class certification rules interact with the Rules Enabling Act, which provides that rules of procedure and evidence “shall not abridge, enlarge or modify any...more
Rule 23 does not explicitly require that a court be able to determine who the members are before certifying a class. But judges have found implicit in the Rule a requirement that membership in a defined class be...more
Takeaway: From the perspective of attorneys representing class action defendants, it seems that some circuits (especially the Ninth Circuit) do not give much deference to district court decisions denying class certification....more
Kilpatrick Townsend partner Jay Bogan, along with three other panel members, recently presented “Class Certification after Olean v. Bumble Bee: Expert Testimony, Uninjured Class Members, and Article III Standing.” This...more
The en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's recent watershed decision in Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative Inc. v. Bumble Bee Foods LLC established several significant benchmarks for determining class...more
Over the past 25 years, I have had the good fortune of getting to know and working with both plaintiff and defendant class action lawyers from many states, and to teach class action practice in dozens of local and national...more
In April 2021, the Ninth Circuit issued its panel opinion in Wholesale Grocery Cooperative v. Bumble Bee Foods LLC, which held that the district court erred in certifying several classes of tuna purchasers in an antitrust...more
Key Points - The en banc 9th Circuit clarified numerous rules applicable to class actions brought under Rule 23(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court’s watershed decision in Olean Wholesale Grocery v....more
A recent Seventh Circuit decision makes an important point about how the principle that a court generally need not resolve the merits to decide class certification is bilateral – it applies to both affirmative claims and...more
Takeaway: The individual claims asserted by a class representative – as well as the defenses that apply to those claims – form the foundation of any effort to certify a class under Rule 23. If the claims of the class...more
Earlier this year, in Wesson v. Staples the Office Superstore, LLC, 68 Cal. App. 5th 746 (2021), the California Court of Appeals held that courts are empowered to limit or strike representative claims under the Private...more
In a recent published decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit clarified the standards that district courts must apply when certifying discrete issues–rather than an entire action–for classwide...more
Takeaway: Consumer class actions primarily target a damages remedy. In the antitrust context, state antitrust law provides the path to damages for indirect purchasers, because federal antitrust law bars indirect purchaser...more
On August 30, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a decision in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley v. ACT, Inc. that addresses how plaintiffs can satisfy the predominance requirement in federal class...more
Takeaway: Judge Timothy Corrigan of the Middle District of Florida recently found a way to certify a class action where consumers alleged the theft of payment card data, acknowledging he “may be the first to certify a Rule...more
Eighth Circuit Overturns Class Certification in Suit Against TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., Holding Individualized Evidence is Required for Each Putative Class Member; District Judge Approves Magistrate’s Recommendation to Deny...more
In Ford v. TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 12008 (8th Cir. Apr. 23, 2021), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a district court’s order certifying a class of customers who had...more
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision recently in Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative, Inc. v. Bumble Bee Foods LLC (“Olean Wholesale”), confirming that district courts must rigorously examine competing...more
On February 2, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s denial of class certification for failure to prove an administratively feasible method to identify absent class members. The Eleventh Circuit’s rejection...more