The case of Parra Rodriguez v. Packers Sanitation Services LTD., LLC typifies the reason employers and employment counsel must stay on top of arbitration case developments....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently dismissed an appeal in the case of Lewis v. Becerra, Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The appellants sought...more
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision that highlights a growing disagreement among federal appellate courts as to whether class action settlements may include a cash incentive award to...more
Two years ago, in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC, the Eleventh Circuit upended decades’ worth of precedent by categorically forbidding incentive payments to class representatives in class action settlements...more
In Part I of this post, we examined the problem with incentive awards to class representatives and the conflict of interest that it creates between class representatives and the class they seek to represent. Recently, the...more
Time and time again this scenario repeats itself and necessarily begs the question: Who is supposed to be protecting the interests of the absent class members in these settlements—class counsel who is taking more than 30% of...more
On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a bombshell decision: A court may not award an incentive fee to a class representative. This is surprising, if not shocking, as it is standard...more
On September 17, 2020, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (Eleventh Circuit) issued an important decision regarding incentive payments in class-action settlements in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) cases. In...more
In a surprising opinion, the Eleventh Circuit politely pointed out that “The Emperor has no clothes.” A common practice in class actions is for class representatives to claim and settling defendants to pay incentive awards....more
- The 9th Circuit has held that settlement of a plaintiff’s individual claims moots the appeal of an order denying class certification, unless the settlement agreement specifically preserves the plaintiff’s personal stake in...more
The parties to class action litigation frequently contest whether plaintiffs are entitled to pre-certification discovery aimed at identifying additional or replacement class representatives. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the...more
Circuit courts of appeal are solidifying the reach of the Supreme Court’s June 2018 decision in China Agritech v. Resh and curtailing the availability of equitable tolling in class contexts. The Supreme Court’s decision in...more
In Radha Geismann, M.D., P.C. v. ZocDoc, Inc., the Second Circuit declined to allow the defendant-appellee to moot a putative class action by depositing $20,000—in full settlement of the plaintiff-appellant’s individual...more
Just days ago I wrote about a district court opinion rejecting a tender of complete relief to pick off a named class representative’s claim in a putative TCPA class action. Well today the Second Circuit Court of Appeal has...more
On October 3, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s approval of a class settlement, an award of attorney’s fees to class counsel, and the provision of an incentive award for the class...more
In China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the filing of a class action complaint does not toll a statute of limitations period for later-filed class actions raising the same claims. The...more
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court in China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh, No. 17-342, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer, Alito, Kagan, and Gorsuch joined. Justice Sotomayor filed...more
On June 20, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit provided guidance on attempts by defendants to moot a plaintiff’s claim by depositing with the court damages sufficient to make the plaintiff whole. The practice...more
On June 20, 2017, the Seventh Circuit ruled that a defendant cannot moot the individual claims of a putative class representative by depositing an unaccepted settlement offer with the court covering all relief purportedly...more
In January 2016, the Supreme Court issued its Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez decision and definitely ruled that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68 could not be used to moot the claims of a named plaintiff. Prior to that ruling,...more
A fair amount of attention has been given in the legal media to the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017, H.R. 985, which has passed the House of Representatives and is currently under consideration by the Senate....more
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the class action settlement between Target Corp. and consumers whose card data was compromised in the company’s 2013 data breach. ...more
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, a closely watched Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) case. The plaintiff, Gomez, filed a TCPA class action after he received allegedly unwanted (and...more
In In Re Celera Corporation Shareholder Litigation, No. 212, 2012 (Del. Dec. 27, 2012), the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the lower Court of Chancery and ruled that a large holder of Celera Corporation (“Celera”) shares...more
In the final days of 2012, the Delaware Supreme Court resolved an appeal arising out of class action litigation concerning the sale of Celera Corporation to Quest Diagnostics, Inc. The litigation was settled by agreement of...more