In December 2008, a major ice storm caused massive and lengthy power outages in several towns in Massachusetts. Twelve residential and business customers of Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light…
First Circuit Clarifies Timing For CAFA Removal
You represent the defendant in a putative wage and hour class action filed in state court, alleging that certain categories of employees were denied mandatory meal breaks. The complaint doe…
Shedding Light on the Vexing Problem of Issue Certification
This week I attended the annual Class Actions Seminar sponsored by DRI (the Defense Research Institute). It was an excellent program, covering many recent trends in class action practice of…
ERISA Retained Asset Account Class Action
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly has published a story about our recent First Circuit win. You can find it here.
The Supreme Court Upholds the Basic Presumption in Securities Litigation but Gives Defendants a Chance for a Win at Class Certification
Earlier this spring, in our post titled, The Supreme Court Ponders the Future of the Basic Presumption in Securities Litigation, we reported on the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in…
Genereux et al. v. Raytheon Company: First Circuit Declines Invitation to Expand Massachusetts Medical Monitoring Law
In this cautionary tale authored by Judge Selya, the First Circuit affirmed the district court’s award of summary judgment to defendant Raytheon Company in a putative class action in which P…
Not every litigator wants to learn class actions; in fact, most do not. After all, why would anyone want to get mired in the procedural morass of a class action when they could be spending…
To Settle or Not to Settle: Eight Questions Corporate Counsel Should Ask in Evaluating Class Action Settlements
To settle or not to settle; that is the question, right? It is asked when you receive the demand letter threatening a class action, when the complaint is filed and served, at the initial sc…
Mississippi ex rel. Hood v. AU Optronics Corporation: Finding CAFA To Be As Clear As An LCD
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court once again weighed in with a decision regarding class actions, but this time with a twist. In what is a rare event in the class action context, the Court hande…
You Can’t Always Get What You Want: D. Mass. Awards Small Fraction of Requested Attorneys’ Fees in ZIP Code Class Settlement
In an opinion reminiscent of the famous Rolling Stones song, Judge Richard Stearns on December 26th awarded plaintiffs’ class counsel fees of $75,959.00 of a requested amount of $450,000 for…