Class Action Settlements. The Tenth Circuit held that in determining how to calculate attorneys’ fees and...more
Predominance and Classwide Damage Models. The Ninth Circuit held that class action plaintiffs may rely on a reliable though not-yet-executed damages model (in this case a proposed but not done conjoint analysis) to...more
On March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the launch of a 90-day sprint to develop and implement a pilot program for DOJ’s latest “carrot” to incentivize companies to invest in a culture of compliance: a...more
Employee engagement has been a buzzword over the last few years, and with good reason – it’s how we retain and promote our best employees. But how does it actually work? What are the mechanics behind your efforts? HR...more
If your business offers a loyalty program in conjunction with a gift card, you likely already know that Section 520-e of New York’s General Business Law took effect December 10, 2023. This new law gives consumers a set grace...more
On November 7, 2023, the British Columbia Securities Commission (the BCSC) implemented a Whistleblower Program (the BCSC Program), under BC Policy 15-604 (the Policy) to encourage individuals to voluntarily provide...more
On November 7, 2023, the British Columbia Securities Commission (“BCSC”) launched a whistleblower program designed to provide financial awards for qualified tips about investment fraud and other serious types of market...more
Effective August 1, amendments (the 2023 amendments) to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) further update the framework under which a company's board of directors may delegate its authority to grant equity incentive...more
Are your employees merely engaged, or are they genuinely experiencing their work and enjoying it? When comparing employee engagement vs. experience, you might think that taking care of one thing is enough, but you must...more
On March 6, the USPTO announced a new Green Energy Category of its Patents for Humanity Program. Patents for Humanity is an awards competition that recognizes innovators who use technology to meet global humanitarian...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
The First Circuit recently reversed the District of Massachusetts’s approval of a settlement award that improperly lacked any subclasses within the 4.8-million-person putative class, finding it “too difficult to determine...more
When negotiating a class action settlement, lawyers on both sides may need to consider whether subgroups within the class need to be separately represented by different counsel. The First Circuit recently reached that...more
More than two years ago, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC, 975 F.3d 1244 (11th Cir. 2020) that incentive payments for lead plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits are improper. After...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
A recent Ninth Circuit decision on a class action settlement, In re Apple Inc. Device Performance Litigation, 2022 WL 4492078 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2022), received significant attention in the legal media. It addressed several...more
It’s been almost two years since a divided panel of the Eleventh Circuit held that incentive payments (a/k/a service awards) in class action settlements are unlawful, a startling and controversial result given the ubiquity of...more
For decades, Plaintiffs and defendants have fought bitterly over most aspects of class-action law. One issue, however, had managed to escape serious contention: the propriety of paying “incentive awards” (also known as...more
The Eleventh Circuit recently decided not to rehear en banc a panel decision which held that a TCPA class action settlement could not include an incentive award for the lead plaintiff. See Johnson v. NPAS Sols., LLC, No....more
Last week, the Eleventh Circuit declined, 7–4, to reconsider en banc a divided panel’s September 2020 decision barring incentive awards to class representatives for their work in class actions. As such, the Eleventh Circuit...more
The plaintiff in Alvarez v. Sunshine Life & Health Advisors LLC - the first Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) action to settle on a class basis - filed his motion for preliminary approval of the settlement. And the...more
The legal industry may have a love-hate relationship with awards and rankings, but these credentials do have a significant role in the marketing mix: According to Greentarget’s State of Digital and Content Marketing Survey,...more
The Oregon Legislative Assembly recently passed Senate Bill (SB) 1514, extending the expiration date of temporary amendments to Oregon’s Equal Pay Act. The act prohibits employers from “discriminat[ing] between employees on...more
Motions To Strike Class Allegations: Here To Stay or Going out of Style? By their nature, class actions, given the prospect of classwide liability and potentially millions (if not billions) in aggregated damages, are...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