Elizabeth Cabraser has written an insightful article asking why women so rarely appear in court serving as plaintiff’s class action counsel.
Jeff Spross has written an article in The Week that addresses the notion raised by many commentators and politicians that there are too many lawsuits.
Consumer law attorney Daniel Karon asks the question, “we’re enlightened and motivated to prevent injuries before they happen . . . aren’t we?”
Judge Elaine Bucklo from the Northern District of Illinois and Chicago attorney Thomas R. Meites recently published an article in the ABA Litigation Journal about what they believe��judges should be told about class action settlements.
The Center for Justice & Democracy at New York Law School has issued a study of over 150 class action settlements.
Media Matters released a video explaining why class action lawsuits are important, how they help workers and consumers, giving several examples.
In the wake of two U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the past three years, consumers, workers and others harmed by unfair fine print in contracts are increasingly being shut out of the courthouse, a new Public Citizen and National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) report shows.
On December 12, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a preliminary study finding that mandatory forced arbitration, which corporations often include in their terms and agreements on websites and form contracts, deprives consumers of the right to effectively resolve disputes they may have with the corporations.
—By Ronald L. M. Goldman, Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman No, it is not a theft of millions of dollars worth of jewels, nor a bank robbery of tens of millions of dollars. It is not even the theft of billions of homeowners’ dollars during the mortgage/credit default swap scandal. It is in fact the hijacking of the entire civil justice system by Corporate America, with the aid of Congress and the blessing of our U.S. Supreme
Carlton Fields recently published a survey of 368 general counsel and other in-house counsel at major companies across more than 25 industries regarding the class actions they faced in 2012 and their expectations for 2013. A number of the findings were quite interesting:
Steve Larson will be presenting at the National Consumer Law Conference Class Action Symposium in Seattle in October. The Class Action Symposium features top class action lawyers presenting on cutting-edge consumer class action topics. Particular focus is given to emerging developments in the Circuit Courts and in trial practice, as well as the continued fallout from recent Supreme Court decisions, such as AT&T v. Concepcion and Dukes v. Wal-Mart. In addition, one session will be
Judge Posner’s quote about employment cases below is equally applicable today. “To retaliate against a man by hurting a member of his family is an ancient method of revenge, and is not unknown in the field of labor relations.” — Richard Postner, J., in NLRB v. Advertisers Mfg. Co., 823 F.2d 1086, 1088 (7th Cir. 1987)
New research by finance and accounting professors at Rutgers and Emory Universities’ business schools finds that class action lawsuits are a strong deterrent to misrepresenting corporate financial results and other wrongdoing. And, in many instances, class actions are a stronger deterrent than SEC enforcement actions. The research found statistically and economically significant deterrence associated with both SEC enforcement and class action lawsuits, according to Simi Kedia, Ph.D., MBA, associate professor of finance at Rutgers University
A class action lawsuit has been filed against News Corporation (“News Corp.”), Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks (collectively “Defendants”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Civil Class Action Case No. 11-4947). The complaint alleges that News Corp. and other defendants knew or were reckless in not knowing that employees at News of the World had allegedly hacked into the cell phone messages of thousands of cell
The documentary Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonalds, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. First-time filmmaker and former public interest lawyer Susan Saladoff uses this infamous case to investigate what’s behind the push for tort reform – which threatens to restrict the legal rights of everyday citizens
The Federal Judicial Center has released an updated 2010 “Managing Class Action Litigation: A Pocket Guide for Judges” which will assist Federal Judges (and practitioners) handling class actions. The pocket guide is helpful for practitioners to learn what judges may be considering when a class action is pending before them. The Pocket Guide can be accessed through this link: Pocket Guide for Judges
Years ago, there were some isolated abuses of class actions that resulted in some negative publicity for class actions. Because of that negative publicity, Congress passed laws like the Class Action Fairness Act, which have largely eliminated complaints about the conduct of class actions in the past few years.
The court will have to be persuaded that the following 4 things have been proved before it certifies a class action: 1. The class is so numerous, that individual lawsuits could not be filed and joined together. That usually means that there must be at least 40 people that are similarly situated. 2. There are common questions of fact or law, which means that all the class members have suffered a similar wrong, and proving that wrong would involve proving
After the class action lawsuit is filed, class counsel will move to have the case certified as a class action. If the court certifies the case as a class action, class counsel will have to send a notice to everyone that the court rules is similarly situated and therefore part of the class. Those people that are sent notices are called class members. Class members then have the opportunity to opt-out if they do not want to participate
Being a plaintiff is usually not a huge time commitment. In order to have the case authorized to proceed as a class action, class counsel has to file a motion for class certification. In the motion, class counsel will ask the court to allow the plaintiff to be the class representative for the entire class. Before that, the plaintiff that filed the suit will have to be a witness at a deposition, which is an out of court
