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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…
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 appears that the answer may be yes. In 2017, the General Assembly amended G.S. § 7A-27 to permit defendants to take interlocutory appeals from orders granting class certification. Prior to the amendment, plaintiffs could pursue interlocutory appeals from orders denying class certification, but defendants had no reciprocal right of…
There are 7 justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court, and 4 are required to constitute a quorum. But what if 5 of the 7 justices have a family history of public service that could prevent them from hearing an appeal? In Lake v. State Health Plan for Teachers &…
Last month, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case that would determine whether the Court’s 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California would extend to federal class actions. In Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Supreme Court ruled that in mass tort actions, state courts do not have…
There is no shortage of consumer class actions these days, but most of these cases are settled or dismissed. If trials are rare, trials of class actions are rarer, if only because of the stakes. In 2017, Dish Network tried its luck with a jury in the Middle District…
After a hiatus, Class Actions Brief is back in business and with an even deeper bench of contributors. Former North Carolina Solicitor General Matt Sawchak joined Robinson Bradshaw in 2020, and Matt now serves as one of our blog editors. He joins Class Actions Practice Group leaders David Wright and…
The Fourth Circuit’s opinion in Bell v. Brockett, No. 18-1149 (4th Cir. Apr. 25, 2019), posits that “[d]efendant class actions are so rare they have been compared to unicorns.” But what may be even rarer is an opinion, like Bell, in which a court opines on the fundamental and concerning…
