Jurisdiction: Other

The Dangers of Watering Down Class-Certification Standards in Fraud Cases

Class actions have long been difficult to certify in fraud cases.  But a recent district court decision in California takes a new approach that would make class certification in fraud cases the norm.  That decision is now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, where Robinson Bradshaw filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Chamber […]

Continuing to Troll the Ninth Circuit Class Certification Waters – Will the Supreme Court Join In?

Updated 8-16-22: StarKist and the other defendants filed their petition for certiorari in the Olean Wholesale Grocery case. A link to the Petition is here. In September 2021 and again in June of this year, we wrote about the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Olean Wholesale Grocery v. Bumble Bee Foods and the court’s opinion following […]

Alleging Classwide Racial Discrimination Can Be Uber-Challenging

If you’re an Uber rider, you’re probably familiar with Uber’s requests that you rate your driver. It’s a five-star rating system. Five is the best. One is the worst. As it turns out, those ratings are vitally important to Uber drivers. Uber requires its drivers to maintain a minimum star rating. This post is about […]

Fishy Results for Class Action Defendants in the Ninth Circuit

Last September, we wrote about the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Olean Wholesale Grocery v. Bumble Bee Foods and the court’s decision to rehear the case en banc.  The en banc Ninth Circuit has now waded back into the class certification waters, with mixed results for defendants.  While the en banc court tossed back the panel’s […]

Deep Dive into Dueling Experts Leads to Denial of Class Certification in Multidistrict Litigation

A leading feature of the Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes is the “rigorous scrutiny” the trial court must apply to determine whether the evidence plaintiffs offer to support class certification meets the requirements of Rule 23. Following the Supreme Court’s decisions in Wal-Mart and Comcast, “[i]t is now indisputably the role […]

Does Tyson’s “No Reasonable Juror” Standard Relieve Courts of the Obligation Rigorously To Analyze Expert Statistical Models at Class Certification?

In order to have a class certified, the plaintiffs have the burden of proving to the satisfaction of the court, “after a rigorous analysis,” that they comply with Rule 23—that is, that “there are in fact sufficiently numerous parties, common questions of law or fact, etc.”  Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 350-51 […]

How Many Uninjured Class Members is Too Many for Certification? The Waters Remain Murky.

The extent to which the presence of uninjured class members may defeat class certification remains unsettled. While, standing alone, the existence of some uninjured class members may not be not fatal (depending on the circuit), just how many is too many to satisfy the predominance requirement of Rule 23(b)(3) is still in flux. The Ninth […]

Enforcing Other Courts’ Orders—A Class Action Remedy for Violations of Bankruptcy Discharge?

Bankruptcy, like the class action, is a form of collective adjudication. It is usually regarded as an alternative to the class action, in which the rights of creditors (often in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions) against one or more debtors can be determined through special procedures that need not meet the requirements for class […]

How do you settle future claims for an indeterminate class amidst scientific uncertainty?

While Roundup herbicide may be able to kill unwanted weeds, Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, is having a much harder time weeding out unwanted lawsuits. Recent cases alleging Roundup caused cancer have resulted in verdicts of tens of millions of dollars per plaintiff. Now Monsanto’s attempt to round up future claims into a class action […]

What should be required to show that a party waived its right to arbitrate?

This post concerns a recurring topic in class-action practice: how a party—through its own litigation conduct—can waive its right to arbitrate. The topic warrants attention, or at least came to our attention, because of a recent decision from a federal appellate court. The case, called Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., is a putative nationwide collective action […]