Overall
Key cases
Industries
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Corporate
Practice Areas
Class Action
-
May 21, 2013
Chimei Inks Initial Deal In Retailers' LCD Price-Fixing Case
Target Corp., Sears Roebuck and Co. and several other retailers in multidistrict litigation accusing a slew of electronics makers of fixing the price of liquid crystal display panels said Tuesday that they had reached a preliminary deal with Chimei Innolux Corp. to settle the dispute.
-
May 21, 2013
Chevron Gas Pumpers Fight To Revive ZIP Code Privacy Suit
Motorists who allege Chevron USA Inc. illegally required them to provide their ZIP codes when they paid for gas at the pump with a credit card urged a California appeals court Tuesday to revive their class action, saying their privacy rights trumped Chevron's fraud concerns.
-
May 21, 2013
Best Buy Wrongly Retained Customer Data, 11th Circ. Told
An Eleventh Circuit panel on Tuesday voiced skepticism over allegations that Best Buy Co. Inc.'s policy of swiping the driver's licenses of customers returning products violated privacy law, and seemed unlikely to reinstate a putative class action challenging the practice.
-
May 21, 2013
Tea Party Groups Hit IRS With 1st Suits In Bias Scandal
A pair of tea party groups mounted the first lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service over the agency’s targeting of conservative groups, claiming in a putative class action and an individual suit Monday that their tax-exempt status applications were illegally scrutinized.
-
May 20, 2013
Strine Tells Wal-Mart To Dig Deeper For Mexican Bribery Docs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. must conduct a more detailed search for documents requested by an institutional investor seeking information about how the retailer's board handled allegations of bribery by its Mexican affiliate, Delaware Chancellor Leo E. Strine Jr. said Monday.
-
May 20, 2013
Carnival Wants Suits Over Deadly Cruise Wreck Sent To Italy
Two Florida judges are weighing whether to keep putative class actions filed by survivors of the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia in their court or dismiss them for refiling in Italy, which Carnival Corp. argued Monday would be a more appropriate venue.
-
May 20, 2013
Pfizer Can't Shake Skelaxin Pay-For-Delay MDL
A federal judge on Monday refused to dismiss multidistrict litigation accusing Pfizer Inc.'s King Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. Inc. of keeping generic versions of the muscle relaxer Skelaxin off the market, finding Rite Aid Corp. and others had plausibly alleged a conspiracy.
-
May 20, 2013
Nike, Apple Face False Ad Suit Over Fitness Wristband
Sports apparel retailer Nike Inc. and electronics giant Apple Inc. were hit with a proposed class action Friday that challenges their advertising claims that the Nike Plus FuelBand electronic wristband accurately records each calorie burned by its wearer during physical activity.
-
May 20, 2013
Sony Wants Toshiba, HannStar Docs In LCD Cartel Suit
A California federal judge should force Toshiba Corp. and HannStar Display Corp. to produce evidence in a suit rolled into multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing of liquid crystal display panels, two Sony Corp. units said Friday.
-
May 20, 2013
Apple, Amazon, Google Can't Nix IP Suit Over Music Licensing
A New York federal judge on Monday refused to toss out a proposed class action against Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and others in a copyright infringement suit claiming the tech companies failed to ensure that the music they make available for downloading is properly licensed.
-
May 20, 2013
Sprint Asks High Court To Back Arbitration Bid In Fee Suit
A Sprint Nextel Corp. unit has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine if a California appeals court skirted its 2011 AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion decision by rejecting Sprint's bid to compel arbitration in a class action over early termination fees.
-
May 20, 2013
Investors Give Libor Antitrust Claims Another Shot
Investors pushed Friday to revive their antitrust claims against Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other top banks accused of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate as part of multidistrict litigation over the rate scandal.
-
May 20, 2013
BMC Investor Sues To Block $7B Sale To Bain, Golden Gate
A BMC Software Inc. investor on Friday launched a proposed class action in Texas court, complaining that a planned $7 billion sale of the company to Bain Capital LLC and Golden Gate Capital shortchanges shareholders.
-
May 20, 2013
Apple, Amazon Fight Over Confidentiality In E-Book Case
Amazon Inc. told a New York federal court Friday that filings in multidistrict litigation alleging Apple Inc. conspired with publishers to fix e-book prices contained business information that should be confidential, prompting Apple to argue the Amazon information was critical to its defense.
-
May 20, 2013
Oil Field Workers Say Superior Energy Stiffed Them On OT
Superior Energy Services Inc. deprived over 1,000 Pennsylvania oil field workers of overtime pay by misclassifying them as exempt from federal and state wage laws, according to a proposed class action filed in federal court Friday.
-
May 20, 2013
Calif. Insurer Accused Of Bilking Policyholders
A California man claiming he is being shortchanged on his medical insurance benefits lodged a putative class action in state court accusing Unum Life Insurance Co. of America of denying an annual benefit increase guaranteed in its long-term care policies.
-
May 20, 2013
High Court Snubs Nucor's Class Cert. Appeal In Bias Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal from Nucor Corp. of a ruling awarding class certification to black workers for the company’s South Carolina factory, who sued alleging they worked in a hostile environment and faced racial discrimination.
-
May 20, 2013
Smithfield Unit Ordered To Pay Workers For Prep Time
A federal judge determined Friday that a class of workers at a pork processing plant owned by a Smithfield Foods Inc. subsidiary should be compensated for time spent changing into and out of their uniforms, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Alvarez v. IBP Inc.
-
May 20, 2013
Latham Blasts Oxbow DQ Bid In Rail Price-Fixing MDL
Latham & Watkins LLP said Friday it should be able to continue representing Union Pacific Railroad Co. in multidistrict price-fixing litigation, slamming Oxbow Carbon & Mineral LLC for allegedly dropping most of its original arguments in a bid to disqualify the firm.
-
May 20, 2013
Macy's Security Checks Violate Wage Laws, Suit Says
An ex-Macy's Corporate Services Inc. employee urged a California federal judge Monday to certify a class of 84,000 current and former workers who claim the department store chain required them to submit to off-the-clock loss-control inspections of their belongings, but didn't pay them for that time.
Expert Analysis
-
9th Circ. Leaves Broughton-Cruz Hanging
The Ninth Circuit decision in Kilgore v. KeyBank NA leaves open the question of whether and to what extent California's Broughton-Cruz rule survives the U.S. Supreme Court decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion. It also suggests additional guidance to maximize enforcement of arbitration agreements and class action waivers, say attorneys with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
-
Probing Private Equity For Section 12(a)(2) Liability
Brockton Retirement Board and Quincy Retirement Board v. Oppenheimer Global Resource Private Equity Fund I LP suggests that the plaintiffs’ securities class action bar is focused on the offering process of private investment funds. The case also shows that disgruntled investors are exploring new legal theories as potentially attractive alternatives to traditional fraud/misrepresentation claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, say attorneys with Proskauer Rose LLP.
-
5 Arbitration Assumptions That Aren't Always True
Arbitration is often thought to be preferable to litigating in court, and in some circumstances, it may be. Deciding to arbitrate, however, should be the result of a careful analysis of the benefits and disadvantages. That analysis requires examining some common perceptions, say Frank Emory and Rita Davis of Hunton & Williams LLP.
-
An Update On Daubert And Class Certification
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Comcast v. Behrend clearly endorses an in-depth analysis of plaintiffs’ class action theories at the class certification stage even where the merits are implicated. This suggests that the court may favor a full Daubert analysis with regard to experts’ class certification opinions, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
-
3 Ways To Leverage Internet Access During Trial
A survey of local rules for courthouses with available Wi-Fi has shown that no courts expressly prohibit the use of Internet by lawyers to gain information about the venire. Interestingly, at least one appellate court has held that it was error not to allow counsel to access the Internet during jury selection, say Derek Sarafa and William O'Neil of Winston & Strawn LLP.
-
Get Your Facts Fast — FOIA Requests May Be Expedited
Anyone who has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration knows that it can be a long wait to get responsive documents and records from the FDA. A recent decision from the D.C. Circuit, however, may lead to significant changes in how the FDA and other federal agencies process FOIA requests, says Kurt Karst of Hyman Phelps & McNamara PC.
-
Inside The Supreme Court Review Of Oxford Health
Oxford Health Plans LLC v. John Ivan Sutter may not be a case about deference after all, but more fundamentally about what parties can expect in arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act. Arbitrator interpretations have never been impervious. And, as Stolt-Nielsen and Concepcion prove, the U.S. Supreme Court sees class arbitration as a different animal, say attorneys with Homer Bonner Jacobs.
-
Consumers Go Up In Smoke In Phillips V. Philip Morris
Manufacturers of consumer products scored a double-win in the recent decision of Phillips v. Philip Morris Companies Inc., which has become a useful precedent for companies that find themselves the targets of consumer class actions based upon state consumer statutes, say attorneys with Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP.
-
Even Paid Internship Programs Come With Risk
The education community recently received a wake-up call when Hamilton College was hit with a class action involving its paid interns. The lessons arising out of the dispute can help schools create programs that are designed to minimize liability and create the best educational experience for interns, says Tamsen Leachman of Fisher & Phillips LLP.
-
Manufacturers, Be Sure To Read These Tea Leaves
The Northern District of California opinion in Ries v. AriZona Beverages USA LLC serves as a reminder that while defeating class certification is critical, it is equally important to establish an evidentiary record focused on defeating the merits of plaintiffs’ claims. It also suggests that defendants may remain well-poised to prevail despite a negative class certification order if they are armed with expert testimony, say attorneys with Alston & Bird LLP.