A new Seventh Circuit decision – Santiago v. City of Chicago – bolsters the strategy among some class action defense lawyers to not bifurcate class certification and merits discovery. This strategy instead contemplates that...more
In Association of American Physicians & Surgeons v. United States Food and Drug Administration (“AAPS”), __ F.4th __, 2021 WL 4097325 (6th Cir. Sept. 9, 2021), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently cast doubt on the...more
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent opinion in Lyngaas v. Curaden AG (“Lyngaas”), has important implications for federal class actions regarding personal jurisdiction and the use of non-admissible evidence to support...more
Recently, in the Matter of Navistar MaxxForce Engines Mktg., Sales Practices, & Prod. Liab. Litig. (“Navistar”), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was asked to adopt the “reasonable indication” approach, which would allow...more
In Uzuegbnam v. Preczewski, the Supreme Court held that the award of nominal damages is sufficient to redress a past injury, satisfying Article III’s redressability requirement. While at first blush, the opinion may appear...more
Since the Supreme Court’s May 16, 2016 decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, Article III standing has continued to be a major focus in federal courts. The Sixth Circuit’s opinion in Primus Group, LLC v. Smith & Wesson Corp.,...more
Earlier this week, the Eleventh Circuit joined the Second, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits in rejecting administrative feasibility as a prerequisite to certification under Rule 23, deepening a split with the First, Third,...more
On September 18, 2020, we wrote an article discussing how the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC, No. 18-12344 (11th Cir. 2020) held that class action incentive payments...more
For more than a decade, United States District Courts have taken a stark approach to the need for appropriate class definitions and ascertainability in federal class actions. Mueller v. CBS, Inc., 200 F.R.D. 227, 233 (W.D....more
On September 17, 2020, in a potentially groundbreaking decision that could have huge implications for the future of class actions, a split panel of the Eleventh Circuit held that incentive payments given to a named plaintiff...more
This second McGuireWoods alert discussing regulation of hand sanitizer manufacture and distribution addresses new considerations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published in a June 2020 update to its March 2020...more
As pandemic response task forces at the federal and state levels ramp up price gouging investigations and enforcement actions across the country, civil plaintiffs attorneys have jumped to the forefront by utilizing private...more
As the initial round of state and local “stay-at-home” and “shelter-in-place” orders expires, and businesses start to reopen, business owners should be aware of the potential liability they face as a result of the COVID-19...more
On April 28, 2020, President Trump invoked powers under the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.), finding that COVID-19 has significantly disrupted the food supply chain with regard to the meat and poultry...more
We recently discussed Circuit Court rulings allowing nationwide class actions where the named plaintiffs could satisfy specific personal jurisdiction. Since then, the Fifth Circuit has held that a defendant did not waive its...more
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for hand sanitizer is extremely high, and the supply chain has not kept pace with that demand. In an effort to meet public need, several federal agencies, including the Food and Drug...more
In the span of two days, two United States Court of Appeals held that a nationwide class action could proceed against a defendant as long as the named plaintiff could satisfy specific personal jurisdiction. ...more
2019 …
Slack-Fill Class Actions. Last year at this time, slack-fill class actions appeared dead. But in 2019, some of the plaintiffs' bar's biggest wins came in slack-fill class actions, with several resulting in class...more
Despite their predecessors largely missing the mark, a new batch of plaintiffs has taken aim at quick-service restaurants’ meal pricing. In the suits, plaintiffs allege that the defendant restaurants deceived them by charging...more
Pesticide suits may not have the staying power many in the food world feared, after all. Following news of the first billion-dollar verdict against the manufacturer of Roundup®, food and beverage companies braced as a series...more
Those who work in food labeling litigation are used to seeing vanilla complaints — that is, standard pleadings asserting the same allegations about label statements again and again. A new trend, however, has spawned several...more
A series of recent headlines in the food and beverage world make it clear that consumers, or at least consumer class action attorneys and their clients, increasingly care where their food comes from and not just what’s in it....more
On Tuesday May 28, 2019, the United State Supreme Court declined to afford state court third-party, class action defendants the ability to remove a class action to federal court. See Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. v. Jackson,...more
On May 4, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a proposed rule to establish a national disclosure standard for foods that may contain bioengineered ingredients. AMS now...more
Commercial litigator Brooks Gresham and products liability litigator Trent Taylor bring us some timely thoughts about reliance from a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a...more