The TCPA: Deep Dive: Details, Class Actions, Regulations, and Defense Strategies
In a win for Defendant IQVIA, Inc., accused of allegedly sending faxes in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied Plaintiff...more
Post-TransUnion, A Closer Examination of Threshold for Article III Standing- Class action trials are rare. The potential magnitude of an adverse verdict, even when improbable, makes the risks of trial unpalatable for...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
On Wednesday, August 7, 2019, Seyfarth partners Robert Milligan and Joseph Escarez reviewed the latest consumer class action law developments affecting companies that do business in California. It is no secret that...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
As we enter the new year, we review some of the more interesting 2017 court decisions in or affecting the indirect purchaser class action arena, and provide practitioners with some key takeaways for 2018 and beyond. As with...more
Most federal courts have found that Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure implicitly requires a showing that members of a proposed class are readily identifiable or “ascertainable” for a class to be certified. For...more
What is seemingly a growing divide between circuits has developed on the appropriate standard for assessing ascertainability in federal class actions, including Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class actions....more
Class actions, especially those with nationwide scope and the specter of huge payouts, have long been the stuff of nightmares for in-house counsel and corporate executives. The press regularly report on settlements where...more
While the Congressional legislative agenda has taken a back seat in the headlines lately, the fact remains that there still is an agenda, and it includes class action reform....more
This is the 15th edition of The Class Action Chronicle, a quarterly publication that provides an analysis of class action trends, along with a summary of recent class certification and Class Action Fairness Act rulings. Our...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
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down its (by now) hotly discussed decision in Briseno v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., 844 F.3d 1121 (9th Cir. 2017), on January 3, 2017, holding there is no separate...more
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the author of the Class Action Fairness Act, introduced the “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017” last week that would substantially change class action...more
The House of Representatives has reintroduced the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act (FICALA), and it’s more substantial than the 2015 version. The previous version, you may recall, attempted to reinforce the typicality...more
On January 3, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to adopt “administrative feasibility” as an independent requirement for class certification. It held that Rule 23 does not require class counsel to show at the...more
This is the ninth edition of The Class Action Chronicle, a quarterly publication that provides an analysis of recent class action trends, along with a summary of class certification and Class Action Fairness Act rulings...more
The concept of “ascertainability” serves as an important arrow in the quiver of a defendant seeking to prevent certification of a putative class action in federal court. Recently, the issue of what a plaintiff must...more
Action Item: Byrd, the latest in a recent line of cases from the Third Circuit concerning the ascertainability standard, emphasizes the importance of keeping the ascertainability analysis distinct from Rule 23’s other...more
In a precedential opinion issued on April 16, 2015, the Third Circuit sought to clarify its requirement that a proposed class be sufficiently ascertainable in order to be certified under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). Expressing...more
On April 16, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated a district court’s order denying class certification of a computer spyware suit against Aaron’s Inc., concluding that district court had...more
In Aguirre v. Amscan Holdings, Inc., Case No. 073059, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 214 (Cal. Ct. App. Feb. 11, 2015), a California Court of Appeal reversed the denial of certification of a putative class alleging violation of Civil...more
Although not explicitly set forth in Rule 23, an essential prerequisite of any action under Rule 23 is that there must be an identifiable “class” at the moment of certification. The shorthand term commonly used to refer to...more
As oil and gas production continues to increase domestically, the possibility for class action exposure is an increasing concern. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently issued its decision in EQT...more