Class Action

  • May 15, 2024

    Blackbaud Dodges Data Breach Victims' Class Cert. Bid

    A South Carolina federal judge has refused to certify several proposed classes consisting of roughly 1.5 billion patients, donors and other individuals whose personal information was allegedly swept up in a 2020 ransomware attack on software provider Blackbaud Inc., finding that the plaintiffs had failed to show that class members could be easily identified. 

  • May 15, 2024

    DocuSign Investors Near Cert. In Post-COVID Prospects Fight

    A California federal judge told counsel Wednesday he's inclined to certify a class of investors who allege DocuSign and its top brass misled investors about the e-signature company's post-pandemic growth prospects, saying DocuSign's challenges to the class-wide damages model seem premature, and the investors easily meet other class certification requirements.

  • May 15, 2024

    State Farm Can't Dodge TCPA Suit Over Robocalls

    State Farm must face a proposed class action alleging it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by using a third-party company to make automated telemarketing calls without prior consent, an Illinois federal judge has ruled, saying the suit states a plausible claim of the insurer's vicarious liability for the robocalls.

  • May 15, 2024

    Two Firms To Lead GrafTech Suit Over Environmental Issues

    An Ohio federal judge on Wednesday appointed Abraham Fruchter & Twersky LLP and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP to lead a shareholder class action against GrafTech International, accusing the electrode-maker of covering up its environmental contamination in Monterrey, Mexico, in the run-up to its initial public offering.

  • May 15, 2024

    Bolt Financial Cancels $37M In Shares To End CEO Loan Suit

    Bolt Financial Inc. will cancel over $37 million in shares to settle a derivative suit against the company's board of directors that accuses its former CEO of purposely defaulting on a $30 million loan, according to a filing in Delaware's Court of Chancery.

  • May 15, 2024

    'Excellent' Altria MDL Deal Earns Attys Fees Above Benchmark

    A California federal judge on Wednesday awarded $13.65 million in plaintiffs' attorney fees as part of tobacco giant Altria's $45.5 million deal resolving consumer claims in multidistrict litigation alleging the company helped fuel a youth vaping crisis created by e-cigarette maker Juul, saying the "excellent result" merited fees above the normal 25% benchmark.

  • May 15, 2024

    'Uber Files' Scandal Can't Prop Up Investor Suit, Judge Says

    Uber Technologies has beaten back a proposed class action alleging that a trove of leaked internal records harmed shareholders by revealing corporate misconduct, with a California federal judge saying plaintiffs failed to prove that any of Uber's statements about the leak were false.

  • May 15, 2024

    Del. Justices Ask: Do Attys Get Thinner Slice Of $1B Dell Pie?

    A near record-breaking $266.7 million fee for stockholder attorneys who settled a Chancery Court class action against Dell Technologies Inc. for $1 billion had Delaware's Supreme Court raising questions Wednesday about how the state traditionally calculates attorney fee awards in large class action settlements.

  • May 15, 2024

    UnitedHealth Concealed DOJ Merger Investigation, Suit Says

    UnitedHealth Group has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that it failed to disclose that the U.S. Department of Justice had reopened an antitrust investigation into the health insurance giant following its acquisition of a healthcare data company, and that top executives had sold more than $120 million of shares knowing about the investigation before a news report revealed it to the public.

  • May 15, 2024

    Plaintiffs Suing Over Netflix Doc Will Reveal Themselves

    Three plaintiffs will publicly identify themselves to continue suing Netflix Inc. for disclosing their names in its documentary about a doctor who fraudulently inseminated his patients, but they warned an Indiana federal court Wednesday that going public would increase their harms.

  • May 15, 2024

    Scott + Scott, Schall To Rep Investors Against Bike Parts Co.

    Scott + Scott Attorneys At Law LLP and the Schall Law Firm will represent a proposed class of investors in Georgia bicycle parts maker Fox Factory Holding Corp. in a suit alleging the company hurt investors by concealing slumping sales and demand.

  • May 15, 2024

    En Banc 9th Circ. Will Mull Jurisdiction In Shopify Privacy Suit

    The Ninth Circuit agreed to review en banc a panel's decision dismissing a suit alleging payment processing company Shopify collects shoppers' sensitive information without permission, after the plaintiff argued the full court should hear the case to resolve how to assess personal jurisdiction in online misconduct cases.

  • May 15, 2024

    Tesla Must Face Trimmed 'Full Self-Driving' False Ad Suit

    Tesla can escape warranty claims in an amended proposed class action alleging the electric automotive giant deceived drivers into falsely believing that its cars can fully pilot themselves, a California federal judge ruled Wednesday, but it must face fraud- and negligence-based claims related to representations made about the vehicles' hardware.

  • May 15, 2024

    Worker Updates Boot-Up Suit After Judge Axes State Claims

    A former call center worker on Tuesday lodged an amended class action complaint seeking boot-up time wages from a home healthcare company, raising only federal claims after a Michigan federal judge earlier this year stripped state law allegations from the suit.

  • May 15, 2024

    Media Coverage Not Enough To Move Flint Water Case

    A water engineering company accused by the Michigan attorney general of prolonging Flint residents' lead exposure cannot move its eventual trial out of the region, a Michigan state judge ruled Wednesday, saying the company could not assume the entire jury pool was biased. 

  • May 15, 2024

    Wage Damages Update Isn't Retroactive, NJ Justices Say

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held an amendment to the state's wage laws adding liquidated damages and extending the statute of limitations should only be applied to conduct that occurred after its effective date, backing the dismissal of some claims brought by laborers alleging unpaid pre- and post-shift work.

  • May 15, 2024

    Minn. Health System To Pay $800K To End 401(k) Suit

    A health system agreed to pay $800,000 to end a proposed class action accusing it of failing to remove costly and underperforming investment funds from its $1.7 billion retirement plans, a filing Wednesday in Minnesota federal court said.

  • May 15, 2024

    Michigan Can't Shake Lawsuit Over Prison's Scabies Outbreak

    The director of the Michigan Department of Corrections and other high-ranking officials must face claims that they allowed an outbreak of scabies in a women's prison to go untreated for years, a federal judge has ruled.

  • May 15, 2024

    Arizona Judge Revives Opendoor Investors' Securities Suit

    An Arizona federal judge has revived a consolidated securities class action accusing real estate company Opendoor Technologies Inc. of misleading investors about the benefits of its pricing algorithm software in order to go public in a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.

  • May 15, 2024

    AstraZeneca Sales Reps Win Early Cert. In Gender Bias Suit

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday granted a bid by workers to conditionally certify a collective in a lawsuit alleging AstraZeneca paid women less than men, giving the green light for notices to be sent out to female sales representatives who have worked at the pharmaceutical giant since late 2018.

  • May 15, 2024

    Monsanto's $23M False Ad Deal Challenged At 9th Circ.

    Counsel representing a certified class of Missouri consumers urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to reverse Monsanto's nationwide $23 million settlement resolving consumer false ad claims over risks associated with its Roundup weedkiller, arguing that Monsanto hid the settlement from the Missouri plaintiffs and that the class is effectively "getting absolutely nothing."

  • May 15, 2024

    Tesla Fires Back At Claims It Bullied Retired Law Professor

    Tesla has pushed back against allegations that it tried to bully a retired law professor out of weighing in on an investor suit over CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation plan, according to new filings in Delaware.

  • May 15, 2024

    Last-Mile Amazon Driver Does Interstate Work, Panel Says

    A driver for a logistics company who primarily made local deliveries for Amazon was engaged in interstate commerce and thus exempt from mandatory arbitration, a California appeals court has held, saying the worker's wage and hour claims can remain in state court.

  • May 15, 2024

    Schnader Harrison Moves To Halt Retirement Class Action

    Shuttered law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP has urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to toss a former partner's proposed class claim the firm mismanaged employee retirement money, saying the complaint misclassifies the firm's payments to the retirement fund.

  • May 15, 2024

    Chancery Orders $199M Penalty In TransCanada Deal Suit

    Citing "non-cumulative" damages award offsets, a Delaware vice chancellor on Wednesday ordered the former TransCanada Corp. to pay $199 million of a potential $283 million judgment issued in a post-trial ruling last year on amounts owed to former Columbia Pipeline Group Inc. shareholders shorted in a 2016 merger.

Expert Analysis

  • Del. Dispatch: Chancery's Evolving Approach To Caremark

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    Though Caremark claims are historically the least likely corporate claims to lead to liability, such cases have been met in recent years with increased judicial receptivity — but the Delaware Court of Chancery still expressly discourages the reflexive filing of Caremark claims following corporate mishaps, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Devil's In The Details On FDCPA, Article III Standing

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    The Third Circuit’s recent decision in Barclift v. Keystone Credit Services concerning the alleged harm needed to support a class action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is in line with other circuits' interpretations of Article III of the Constitution, notwithstanding disagreement over the minutiae of a proper Article III analysis, says Nick Agnello at Burr & Forman.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Examining Illinois Genetic Privacy Law Amid Deluge Of Claims

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    After a federal court certified an Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act class action in August, claims under the law have skyrocketed, so employers, insurers and others that collect health and genetic information should ensure compliance with the act to limit litigation risk, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • Standardizing Early Case Appraisal In Securities Class Actions

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    While an initial economic assessment of securities class action litigation is far too often not undertaken, it's an important step in planning the defense strategy that can provide counsel, clients and insurers with a much clearer view of the case, and can be simplified through standardized analyses, says Assen Koev at SCA iPortal.

  • Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures

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    The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Key Antitrust Class Certification Questions Remain Unclear

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    The U.S. Supreme Court, by recently rejecting certiorari in Visa v. National ATM, turned down the opportunity to clarify how to analyze disputed evidence bearing on the certification of antitrust class actions, leaving the applicable standards unclear instead of resolving this split of authority, says Jonathan Berman at Jones Day.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes

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    Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.

  • What's Notable In JAMS' New Mass Arbitration Rules

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    The Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services’ recently released guidelines, coming on the heels of similar American Arbitration Association amendments, suggests that mass arbitrations will remain an efficient means for consumers to vindicate their rights against companies, say Jonathan Waisnor and Brandon Heitmann at Labaton Keller. 

  • Justices Clarify FAA But Leave Behind Important Questions

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Bissonnette v. LePage firmly shuts the door on any argument that the Federal Arbitration Act's Section 1 exemption is limited to transportation workers whose employers transport goods on behalf of others, but two major issues remain unresolved, say Joshua Wesneski and Crystal Weeks at Weil.

  • PE In The Crosshairs Of Public And Private Antitrust Enforcers

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    A series of decisions from a California federal court in the recently settled Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, as well as heightened scrutiny from federal agencies, serve as a reminder that private equity firms may be exposed to liability for alleged anti-competitive conduct by their portfolio companies, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Breaking Down 4th Circ. Pendent Appellate Jurisdiction Ruling

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    As illustrated by the Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Elegant Massage v. State Farm, denying class certification and granting a motion to dismiss, federal appellate courts continue to struggle with defining the scope of pendent appellate jurisdiction — or jurisdiction over nonfinal orders below, says Joan Steinman at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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