Supreme Court Closes CAFA Loophole in Standard Fire v. Knowles
In the rapidly evolving landscape of Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation, recent court decisions continue to provide defendant-friendly clarity as to what technology and platforms constitute automatic...more
Suppose that the central issue in a putative class action is a legal issue pending before the Supreme Court. Depending on how the Supreme Court rules, the plaintiffs will recover either nothing or up to $600 million. But...more
In the case of Drazen v. Pinto, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc ruled unanimously that plaintiffs who received a single unwanted telemarketing text message suffered a concrete injury. In 2019, Susan...more
Takeaway: The law surrounding “coupon” settlements under 28 U.S.C. § 1712 of the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”) continues to evolve. Under section 1712(e), courts must: (1) apply “heightened scrutiny” when approving...more
Last year saw courts, particularly federal courts, continue their close scrutiny of class action settlements to ensure that they are fair and reasonable to class members, and do not unfairly prioritize the interests of class...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in McKnight v. Hinojosa, No. 21-16623, 2022 WL 17333820 (9th Cir. Nov. 30, 2022) considered whether the proposed class action settlement was a "coupon settlement" and therefore...more
Class actions for money damages that involve class members who do not have Article III standing in the Eleventh Circuit are improper even if such members would have standing in other jurisdictions. In a unanimous decision...more
Ninth Circuit decision prohibits use of lodestar-only methodology to calculate a fee award for class action settlements involving coupons. The decision contemplates coupon class action settlements where coupons are...more
Attorney fee awards are a major driver of class action litigation – both in the employment and other contexts. How they are awarded, and what is “reasonable” has been an ongoing source of contention in many cases. A recent...more
Does a state, whose citizens are among the absent class members in a class action settlement, have Article III standing to challenge the supposed unfairness of the settlement? In Chapman v. Tristar Products, Inc., the Sixth...more
Fourteen years ago, Congress enacted legislation intended to protect consumers and investors from settlements in which plaintiffs' attorneys pulled in large fees while their clients (the class members) received little. In one...more
The Situation: Under the Class Action Fairness Act, the Department of Justice may object to federal class action settlements it believes are unfair or inequitable to unnamed class members. The Result: In the past year,...more
Some legal commentators and lawyers have pronounced the death of class actions in light of significant changes in the law in the last fifteen years, including the passage of the Class Action Fairness Act and the Supreme...more
Companies may be inclined to offer “coupons” or similar benefits to settle consumer class actions. While offering coupons is permissible, in In re Easysaver Rewards Litigation, No. 16-56307, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 28000 (9th...more
Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continue to scrutinize class settlements to ensure that neither defendants nor class action counsel are improperly benefiting at the expense...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to take a more active role in reviewing and objecting to class action settlements under a rarely used procedure established by the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) more than a dozen...more
For the first time in more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has exercised its authority under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) to file an objection to a proposed settlement of a consumer class action....more
A bipartisan group of 16 state attorneys general has filed an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision upholding the district court’s approval of a...more
In In re Hyundai & Kia Fuel Economy Litigation, No. 15-56014, 2018 WL 505343 (9th Cir. Jan. 23, 2018), the Ninth Circuit vacated a nationwide class action settlement, concluding that the district court’s failure to conduct a...more
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Pennsylvania district court decision holding the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prevented a private party from enjoining the state of Louisiana from bringing...more
Welcome to our second Roundup of 2017, where we feature the cases litigated and settlements finalized during the second calendar quarter of the year. It was a very active quarter in almost all of the categories we monitor,...more
As class action litigation has continued to proliferate, we have seen efforts to rein in the perceived abuses of the system on multiple fronts. Over a decade ago, Congress passed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA)...more
On November 22, the Eleventh Circuit clarified that Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) jurisdiction is not eliminated when the class claims are dismissed before the class is certified. The plaintiff, an Alabama trucking...more
Introduction and Overview - Since the turn of the century, there has been a huge increase in the number of class action lawsuits alleging violations of California’s overtime laws or other Labor Code statutes and wage and...more
Lawyers seeking to settle class actions pending in federal court by dismissing and refiling in state court beware! In two recent orders, a federal judge in the Western District of Arkansas ruled that the attorneys...more