Please join us for a webinar on the 2024 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey results. Now in its 13th year, the survey offers both a current snapshot and insights over time into management practices and experiences of in-house...more
Our firm recently conducted a survey that reveals conflicting views by companies regarding whether their outside counsel should use generative artificial intelligence.
Originally published in Law360....more
The 2023 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey provides an overview of important issues and practices related to class action matters and management. The annual publication reports on historical trends captured since the...more
Representative actions brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) have been the bane of that state’s labor lawyers’ existence since PAGA’s enactment in 2004. Thanks to this week’s Supreme Court decision...more
6/20/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Preemption ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
SCOTUS ,
State Labor Laws ,
Viking River Cruises ,
Viking River Cruises Inc v Moriana
Carlton Fields is pleased to share its 11th annual Class Action Survey, which provides an overview of important issues and practices related to class action matters and management. This annual publication reports on...more
The 2022 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey reveals that companies with class actions are seeing increases in the number of class actions they face at a given time. The current portfolio reveals the highest number of both...more
This year has been an important one for class action law. Here are 10 of the most important class action cases of 2021 and their impact on class action litigation....more
12/10/2021
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Breach ,
NCAA ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Standing ,
Student Athletes ,
TCPA ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
Class discovery is inherently more limited than normal fact discovery for trial, and litigators understandably approach it in a more narrow fashion than they would trial discovery. The Fifth Circuit recently reminded class...more
The Eleventh Circuit recently imparted an important message to the class action bar, and in particular to attorneys representing different named plaintiffs in competing class actions: there is “only one gatekeeper under Rule...more
This week, an Eleventh Circuit panel, in a 2-1 decision, reversed the approval of an incentive payment to the named plaintiff, calling the payment an unauthorized bounty. The case involved a Telephone Consumer Protection Act...more
The Seventh Circuit confronts “objector blackmail” and limits the extraction of “rents from the litigation process simply by showing up and objecting to consummation of the settlement.”...more
Over the last month, there have been numerous lawsuits across the country by policyholders seeking insurance coverage for losses they claim are resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last two weeks, the new trend has...more
Even before the current pandemic crisis, we have noticed a growing trend in the filing of class action lawsuits challenging, under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), notices required to be issued by...more
Courts have been and likely always will be reluctant to strike class allegations or deny class certification before class discovery. Indeed, over-aggressive attempts to strike class allegations can often do more harm than...more
Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick has written a new book titled The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). An excerpt was published in the winter 2020 issue of Vanderbilt...more
In September 2019, the Federal Trade Commission issued a staff report titled “Consumers and Class Actions: A Retrospective and Analysis of Settlement Campaigns.” The FTC staff studied 149 consumer class action settlements and...more
The Eleventh Circuit recently examined the application of the $5 million amount-in-controversy requirement under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) to disputes over life insurance premiums and policies. It concluded that...more
1/9/2020
/ Amount in Controversy ,
Breach of Contract ,
CAFA ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Insurance Products ,
Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing ,
Declaratory Relief ,
Good Faith ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Life Insurance ,
Policy Terms ,
Premiums ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Reinstatement ,
Removal
A federal court in Massachusetts recently denied class status for a group of individuals caught driving in the fast lane. Finding that the named plaintiff failed to demonstrate typicality and predominance, the District of...more
After receiving a bankruptcy discharge, a borrower whose home is pending foreclosure has two options: stay in the home and, perhaps, make voluntary payments on the mortgage, or leave the home and start fresh. When a debt...more
11/14/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Debt Collection ,
FCCPA ,
FDCPA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Foreclosure ,
FRCP 23(b)(3) ,
Homeowners ,
Mortgages ,
Popular ,
Preemption ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Reversal ,
Statutory Violations
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently underscored that removal practice under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) differs in some important respects from traditional removal practice in non-CAFA cases. It did so...more
10/30/2019
/ Amount in Controversy ,
Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
CAFA ,
Class Action ,
Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Marriott ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Remand ,
Removal ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Sua Sponte ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Statements
A recent class certification opinion may increase the risk of exposure and liability in class actions for businesses that impose fees using specific labels.
In Waste Pro USA v. Vision Construction Ent., Inc., a Florida...more
9/24/2019
/ Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Commonality ,
Fee Disputes ,
Fees ,
Hidden Fees ,
Misleading Impressions ,
Predominance Requirement ,
Surcharges ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
The Ninth Circuit has issued its much-anticipated decision in a class action against Facebook involving alleged biometric privacy violations, affirming certification of a class. In Patel v. Facebook, the Northern District of...more
9/17/2019
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Social Media ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing
Lin v. Everyday Beauty is an Eastern District of New York decision addressing an issue that has divided district courts in the Second Circuit and elsewhere: Whether a federal court may consider inadmissible evidence when...more
9/10/2019
/ Affidavits ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Dukes v Wal-Mart ,
Evidence ,
Evidentiary Rulings ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
FRCP 23 ,
Hearsay ,
Inadmissible Evidence
The Fifth Circuit recently became the first federal court of appeals to hold that employees who signed arbitration agreements should not receive notice of collective actions. This case of first impression among the courts of...more
After winning the World Cup on Sunday with a thrilling 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, the U.S. women’s national soccer team laid claim to being the best women’s soccer team in history. They celebrated their victory at the...more
7/9/2019
/ Class Action ,
Disparate Treatment ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Soccer ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
Women in Sports ,
World Cup