First Class Defense – Pierce Atwood Blogs

First Class Defense

March 26, 2025

Massachusetts Court Denies Certification of Privacy Class Action for Failure to Meet Ascertainability Requirement

Class Action Litigation, Class Actions, Class Certifications, Massachusetts Decisions, Privacy Class Actions, US District Court - Mass

Authors:

Practice area:

On February 14, 2025, in Therrien v. Hearst Television, Inc., the District of Massachusetts denied a motion for class certification due to the plaintiff’s failure to meet the implied ascertainability requirement of Rule 23. The court concluded that the named plaintiff’s claims for unlawful disclosure of personally identifiable information could not be maintained on a […]

Continue Reading

January 08, 2025

Massachusetts Court Decertifies Class Action Against Medical School Over Deceptive Advertising Claims

Class Actions, Class Certifications, Consumer Class Actions, Massachusetts Decisions, US District Court - Mass

Authors:

Melanie A. Conroy

Practice area:

Class Action Defense

The District of Massachusetts recently issued an opinion decertifying a class of medical students formerly enrolled at Saba University School of Medicine, a for-profit medical school in the Dutch Caribbean that is headquartered in Massachusetts. The reversal followed the court’s initial tentative certification under Federal Rule 23, issued from the bench immediately after oral argument. […]

Continue Reading

September 30, 2024

First Circuit Revives Privacy Class Action Based on Injury and Predominance

Appeals, Class Actions, Class Certifications, Consumer Class Actions, First Circuit Decisions, Privacy Class Actions, Standing, US District Court - Mass

Authors:

Melanie A. Conroy

Practice area:

Class Action Defense

This summer, the First Circuit revived a privacy class action based on debt collection practices. In Nightingale v National Grid USA Service Company, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and denied class certification. On appeal, the First Circuit vacated and remanded, focusing its analysis on (1) whether the Plaintiff alleged […]

Continue Reading

July 31, 2024

In Trio of Decisions, Supreme Court Resolves Circuit Splits on Arbitration

Arbitration, Class Action Litigation, Supreme Court

Authors:

Melanie A. Conroy

Practice area:

Litigation

Three recent Supreme Court Decisions—Coinbase v. Suski, Smith v. Spizzirri, and Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries—based on consumer and employment disputes have resolved significant circuit splits over arbitration. These cases were all decided by a unanimous Court, with Justices Jackson, Sotomayor, and Roberts authoring the three opinions. Supreme Court Considers Arbitrability Based on Conflicting Contracts In […]

Continue Reading

July 18, 2024

Federal Courts in the First Circuit Continue to Grapple with Privacy Class Action Claims

Class Action Litigation, Consumer Class Actions, First Circuit Decisions, Privacy Class Actions, US District Court - Mass

Authors:

Melanie A. Conroy

Practice area:

Class Action Defense

In 2023, we discussed the uptick in data privacy and cybersecurity class action lawsuits; as expected, this trend has persisted throughout 2024 as plaintiffs continue to test new theories of liability and the boundaries of constitutional standing. In privacy class actions before the federal courts of the First Circuit, plaintiffs have brought state tort and […]

Continue Reading

April 30, 2024

Supreme Court Declines to Take Up Circuit Split on Whether Courts May Grant Class Certification by Averaging Different Class Member Damages

Appeals, Class Action Litigation, Class Actions, Class Certifications, Consumer Class Actions, First Circuit Decisions, Litigation, Privacy Class Actions, Standing, Supreme Court

Authors:

Melanie A. Conroy

Practice area:

Class Action Defense

On April 29, 2024, the Supreme Court issued an Order List indicating that certiorari had been denied in Brinker International, Inc. v. Steinmetz, Docket No. 23-648. The Eleventh Circuit Brinker Decision Brinker was a July 2023 Eleventh Circuit decision affirming class certification and holding that class members’ exposure of their payment information to the dark web […]

Continue Reading

February 13, 2024

Part 4: Making a COVID-19 Tuition Suit Last

Class Action Litigation, Class Actions, Class Certifications, Legislation, Litigation, Massachusetts Decisions, US District Court - Mass

Authors:

Practice area:

We recently highlighted two Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits, against Brandeis University and Boston College, and the impact of a provision in the Commonwealth’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget that grants retroactive immunity from claims arising out of tuition or fees paid for the Spring 2020 term. In both cases, with orders issued just […]

Continue Reading

February 01, 2024

The Budget Saves Brandeis: An Update on COVID-19 Tuition Litigation

Class Action Litigation, Class Actions, Current Affairs, First Circuit Decisions, Litigation, Massachusetts Decisions, US District Court - Mass

Authors:

Practice area:

In Part 2 of our series on our Massachusetts and Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits, we reviewed the legal backdrop of this wave of class action litigation and explored some common pitfalls in education-based claims, noting that even where cases are able to proceed based on adequate framing of the claims and underlying […]

Continue Reading

January 11, 2024

Supreme Court Dismisses ADA Website Accessibility Class Action for Mootness, Vacates First Circuit Decision

Appeals, Class Action Litigation, Class Actions, Consumer Class Actions, First Circuit Decisions, Jurisdiction, Litigation, Standing, Supreme Court, US District Court - Maine

Authors:

Melanie A. Conroy

Practice area:

Class Action Defense

At the close of 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of petitioner Acheson in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer as moot and vacated the underlying decision by the First Circuit that Laufer had constitutional standing to bring her ADA claims. The decision came as no surprise following the Justices’ sharp focus on mootness during […]

Continue Reading

October 19, 2023

District of Rhode Island Rules that Class Action Waivers are Not Enforceable Outside of Arbitration

Arbitration, Class Action Litigation, Class Actions, Consumer Class Actions, Litigation, US District Court - Rhode Island

Practice area:

Class Action Defense

Earlier this month, in Elsie Metcalfe v. Grieco Hyundai, LLC, the Rhode Island Federal District Court invalidated a class action waiver in an agreement without an arbitration clause that was therefore not subject to the Federal Arbitration Act. In Metcalfe, Plaintiff Elsie Metcalfe leased a car from Defendant Grieco Hyundai, LLC, in May 2019. The […]

Continue Reading

Pierce Atwood is pleased to present this class action blog with a focus on decisions of the state and federal courts within the boundaries of the First Circuit. With decades of national class action experience and offices in every First Circuit state, our goal is to serve as a primary resource for companies that face class litigation in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, as well as to provide timely information about significant class action developments, strategies and trends on a national level.

Pierce Atwood’s Class Action Defense team has also started tracking filings and decisions in state and federal courts within the boundaries of the First Circuit in New England.

View our New England and First Circuit Class Action Tracker on our firm website.