On Jan. 1, 2024, California’s Proposition 12 (Prop 12) went into full effect, requiring certain farm owners, operators and distributors of covered farm animals such as egg-laying hens, commercial breeding pigs and veal calves...more
On Nov. 2, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration proposed revoking the regulation that authorizes the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in food. BVO is a vegetable oil with added bromine that prevents the separation of...more
On Oct. 7, 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California Food Safety Act (CFSA) into law, making California the first state to ban the manufacture, sale, distribution or delivery of food products containing four food...more
In Lowery v. Rhapsody International, Inc., —F.4th—, 2023 WL 3857499 (June 7, 2023), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed an award of attorneys’ fees to class counsel that was more than thirty times the amount...more
In conjunction with the G7 Summit in Japan, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) introduced additional economic sanctions on May 19, 2023, with the aim of further limiting the...more
On March 13, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the district court’s order of class certification in Van v. LLR, Inc. under Rule 23(f)....more
On January 5, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to strike class allegations after only limited discovery....more
The Eighth Circuit recently held that a district court “applied the wrong legal standard” when it remanded a case after removal under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”). In Leflar v. Target Corp., the district court held...more
On December 16, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit made two important findings in a class-action settlement case.
First, the Court vacated the district court’s settlement approval finding that the...more
On November 30, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s finding that a settlement was not a coupon settlement when applying the three factors outlined in In re Online DVD-Rental...more
On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied a purported class representative’s attempt to intervene in a class action. The class representative had argued that his interests were not adequately...more
In Kelly v. RealPage, Inc., the Third Circuit held that a small subclass of consumers could proceed on their class action against RealPage based on the company’s failure to provide them with required third-party information...more
A recent lawsuit alleges that Skittles consumers “are at heightened risk of a host of health effects” because Skittles uses titanium dioxide (TiO2). TiO2 is considered an inert and safe material, and for decades has been...more
On August 15, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a class-certification order on a Rule 23(f) appeal after sua sponte holding that the named plaintiff had no standing to sue. The case is yet another...more
During a span of less than two months, a group of Arkansas lawyers filed 22 class action suits in Lonoke County, Arkansas, alleging violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Here are five key items to know...more
On Wednesday, August 3, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit confirmed the groundbreaking decision that incentive payments given to a named plaintiff in a class action are improper by denying a petition for rehearing en banc that had...more
In Drazen v. Pinto, –F.4th–, 2022 WL 2963470 (July 27, 2022), the Eleventh Circuit vacated a district court’s decision to certify a class under Rule 23 and approve the class settlement because the class included members who...more
Appellee Thomas Fox and others failed to pay their delinquent property taxes in certain Michigan counties and had their property foreclosed on and sold. However, the counties kept all of the sale proceeds and not just the...more
The 7th Circuit recently vacated a 25% attorneys’ fee award in In re Stericycle Securities Litigation, No. 20-2055, 2022 WL 1564997, at *1–14 (7th Cir. May 18, 2022). The Court’s reasoning focused on the previous litigation...more
In Ali v. City of Chicago, —F.4th—, 2022 WL 1548176 (May 17, 2022), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down one litigant’s attempt to employ a “stealth” class action....more
The 7th Circuit in Schutte v. Ciox Health, LLC., construed the Local Controversy Exception to the Class Action Fairness Act.[1] CAFA’s Local Controversy Exception applies, in pertinent part, if “during the 3-year period...more
A recent Ninth Circuit decision—In re Cathode Ray Tube Antitrust Litig., 20-15697, 2021 WL 4306895 (9th Cir. Sept. 22, 2021)—that prevented a group of plaintiffs from challenging the approval of a settlement award in a...more
In Ruhlen v. Holiday Haven Homeowners, Inc., 11th Cir. No. 21-90022, 2022 WL 701622 (11th Cir. Mar. 9, 2022), the Eleventh Circuit denied a petition for permission to appeal a district court’s sua sponte remand of a case to...more
On a question of first impression in the Fourth Circuit, McAdams v. Robinson, 2022 WL 401806 (4th Cir. Feb. 10, 2022) concluded that absent class members objecting to a magistrate judge’s jurisdiction over settlement are not...more
In Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. State Street Corporation, — F.4th —-, 2022 WL 391450 (1st Cir. Feb. 9, 2022), the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s sanction of law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann &...more