Practice Areas
Class Action
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January 27, 2012
Judge Hits Brakes On AutoZone Managers' OT Suit
AutoZone Inc. store managers are properly deemed overtime exempt, despite being bound by detailed corporate policies and spending significant time on customer service and other nonexempt tasks, a federal judge ruled Friday, dismissing an employee class action seeking back pay for overtime wages.
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January 27, 2012
In-House Accounts May Stop Insider Trading, 9th Circ. Hears
A financial industry group urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to uphold a ruling for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC letting brokerage firms require employees to keep personal trading accounts in-house, saying the policy is needed to help detect violations like insider trading.
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January 27, 2012
Imax Investors Reel In $12M In Securities Action
Imax Corp. has agreed to pay $12 million to wind up a putative class action alleging the movie pioneer misled investors about shoddy accounting methods, according to settlement papers filed Thursday in New York federal court.
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January 27, 2012
Judge Trims Class Action Over Volvo Engines
A North Carolina federal judge on Friday tossed a fraud claim and a large chunk of two other allegations in a proposed class action accusing two Volvo Group units of hiding an engine defect from consumers.
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January 27, 2012
Judge Picks Wild Card Bellwether In Toyota Defect Cases
A California judge on Thursday picked the first bellwether case in consolidated state court litigation over sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles, taking the rare step of choosing a case proposed by neither the plaintiffs' steering committee nor Toyota's attorneys.
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January 27, 2012
Duane Reade Managers Granted Cert. In OT Suit
A New York federal judge on Friday handed an early victory to Duane Reade Inc. assistant store managers who claim they are wrongly exempted from overtime pay, conditionally certifying their collective action against the pharmacy chain.
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January 27, 2012
Proskauer, Chadbourne Take Stanford Fight To Fed. Court
Proskauer Rose LLP and Chadbourne & Parke LLP said Friday that a group of putative class actions accusing the firms of helping shield accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford's bank from investigators belongs in Texas federal court.
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January 27, 2012
Class Action Group Of The Year: Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown LLP persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a game-changing decision in favor of AT&T Mobility LLC in a closely watched case over class action waivers in arbitration agreements and got a nationwide class decertified in a case against American Honda Motor Co. — just two of several cases that landed Mayer Brown a place among Law360’s Class Action Groups of 2011.
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January 27, 2012
Judge Won't Toss Same-Sex Couples' CalPERS Insurance Case
A California federal judge on Thursday refused to toss a class action by state employees over federal tax provisions that exclude same-sex spouses and domestic partners from long-term care insurance coverage by the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
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January 27, 2012
HP Faces Class Action Over Computer Power Supplies
Hewlett-Packard Co. on Thursday removed to California federal court a putative class action alleging that various models of the company's lines of Slimline and Pavilion computers were deceptively marketed and sold with inadequate power supplies.
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January 27, 2012
Regions Latest To Be Nailed With Overdraft Fee Action
Banking company Regions Financial Corp. was hit Friday in Georgia federal court with a proposed class action by debit card holders that accuses the bank of illegally assessing and collecting excessive overdraft fees, joining a number of banks who have recently faced similar allegations.
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January 27, 2012
7th Circ. Affirms Bankers’ OT Class Despite Dukes
The Seventh Circuit upheld the certification of two classes of bank employees under Illinois state law in an overtime case Friday, the first time a circuit court has addressed the application of the Walmart v. Dukes commonality analysis to wage-and-hour class actions.
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January 27, 2012
Venoco's Shareholders Sue To Block CEO Buyout Bid
Venoco Inc.'s directors were hit with a putative shareholder class action in Colorado federal court on Thursday aimed at blocking the Denver-based energy company's CEO and majority shareholder from buying it out for $12.50 a share.
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January 27, 2012
Halliburton Fraud Class Wins Cert After SCOTUS Ruling
A Texas federal judge on Friday certified a nearly decade old securities class action lawsuit against Halliburton Co. after the U.S. Supreme Court in June lowered the threshold for such certification.
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January 27, 2012
McGraw-Hill Doesn't Pay Foreign Royalties: Class Action
An author slammed The McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. with a proposed breach of contract class action Wednesday in New York, claiming the publisher failed to properly compensate authors for royalties on books sold for use in foreign countries.
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January 27, 2012
Seagate Closes Out Age Discrimination Action
A Minnesota federal judge signed off Thursday on a settlement agreement that brings to a close collective action allegations that Seagate Technology LLC discriminated against its elderly employees by firing them while keeping younger workers on payroll.
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January 27, 2012
Hospital Group Hid Whistleblower Suit: Investors
Health Management Associates Inc. shareholders filed a class action in Florida federal court Friday claiming stock prices plummeted after it was revealed the hospital group had used Medicare fraud to inflate prices and hidden a wrongful-termination whistleblower suit by an employee who uncovered the alleged fraud.
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January 27, 2012
Costa Concordia Crewman Hits Carnival With Class Action
A crew member from the Costa Concordia cruise ship hit Carnival Corp. with a putative class action in Illinois on Thursday, claiming the company didn’t evacuate the 4,200 passengers and crew quickly enough when the ship ran aground off the coast of Italy.
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January 26, 2012
Google, Apple Anti-Poaching Pact Suit Proceeds
A California federal judge on Thursday allowed a proposed class action to proceed against media and technology giants including Apple Inc. and Google Inc. over their alleged anti-competitive agreements not to poach each other’s employees.
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January 26, 2012
Class Action Group Of The Year: Kirkland & Ellis
Kirkland & Ellis LLP's skilled trial attorneys beat back large, long-running class actions against clients Raytheon Co., The Dow Chemical Co. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., earning them a spot among Law360's Class Action Practice Groups of 2011.
Expert Analysis
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BPA Class Certification: Denied
A Missouri federal court has denied the class certification motion of consumers suing defendants in the multidistrict litigation over the use of bisphenol A in baby bottles and sippy cups. The court offered a number of reasons for the denial, including the fact that plaintiffs’ proof of what defendants failed to disclose would not be common for all class members, says Sean Wajert of Dechert LLP.
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Lottery Laws And SMS Sweepstakes
The multimillion-dollar settlement with plaintiffs in multiple California class actions alleging that SMS sweepstakes were illegal lotteries highlights the significant financial liability that sponsors and related companies could face if their contests are not carefully structured to avoid potentially violating lottery and gambling laws, say attorneys with Perkins Coie LLP.
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Because Jurisprudence Is (Not) Forever
The Third Circuit recently ruled en banc to approve a classwide settlement in Sullivan v. DB Investments, an antitrust case involving diamond giant De Beers. The opinion is unusual not just because it represents a break from routine, but because of how it reaches its result — it appears that the en banc opinion did not consider much of the relevant U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on the issues facing it, says Andrew Trask of McGuireWoods LLP.
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Privacy Class Actions And The Harm Threshold
In 2012, plaintiffs likely will continue to file lawsuits over privacy practices, but whether they can show harm resulting from the collecting and sharing of personal information, or use of online behavior tracking devices, is still in flux, say Heather Egan Sussman and Jason Crow of McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
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Labels Matter In Calif. 'All Natural' Claims
Given the expectation that costly "all natural" class action litigation will continue in California in 2012, companies should review their products and labeling for synthetic preservatives or artificial ingredients included in or added to the food, so that product labeling is accurate and conforms to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's policy, say Thomas Woods and Melissa Jones of Stoel Rives LLP.
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Putting The Brakes On Class Certification Under Dukes
The recent Michigan federal court decision in OnStar Contract Litigation is the first multidistrict litigation ruling to apply the more stringent class certification scrutiny determined in Wal-Mart v. Dukes. This case highlights the importance of defendants’ attention to the discovery of plaintiffs and to expert discovery in preparing to challenge class certification, say Neal Walters and Darryl May of Ballard Spahr LLP.
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Emerging Trends In Indirect-Purchaser Antitrust Cases
So long as the Class Action Fairness Act continues to drive indirect-purchaser antitrust claims into federal court, defendants will continue to raise antitrust standing and cite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Assoc. Gen. Contractors of Cal. v. Cal. State Council of Carpenters in an effort to defeat those claims, say Christopher Micheletti and Patrick Clayton of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP.
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Limiting Liability For Replacement Parts
The Washington and California Supreme Court decisions in Braaten v. Sagerhagen Holdings and O’Neil v. Crane Co. contribute to a growing body of precedent defining the limits of tort liability for product manufacturers and distributors and limiting their liability for later-added replacement parts manufactured and distributed by others, say Lauren Michals and Ross Petty of Nixon Peabody LLP.
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Case Study: Salmonson V. Microsoft
The California Supreme Court decision in Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores Inc. triggered a wave of lawsuits against online businesses, raising the question of whether the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act applies to online transactions. A California federal court's analysis in Salmonson v. Microsoft Corp. eliminates some of that uncertainty, say Purvi Patel and Megan Low of Morrison & Foerster LLP.
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Broadening The Field Of Acceptable Expert Witnesses
There are many pitfalls in using the same expert witnesses over and over again. In choosing an expert, you should look to someone who has had real-life experience in the area that requires the expert testimony, which does not always mean the person with the most academic degrees, says Donald Chance Mark of Fafinski Mark & Johnson PC.