Melanie Conroy – First Class Defense

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

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

January 8, 2025 by Melanie Conroy

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. […]

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First Circuit Revives Privacy Class Action Based on Injury and Predominance

September 30, 2024 by Melanie Conroy

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 […]

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Arbitration Class Action Litigation Supreme Court

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

July 31, 2024 by Melanie Conroy

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 […]

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

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

July 18, 2024 / July 18, 2024 by Melanie Conroy

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 […]

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

April 30, 2024 by Melanie Conroy

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 […]

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

January 11, 2024 / January 11, 2024 by Melanie Conroy

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 […]

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

October 19, 2023 / May 17, 2024 by Melanie Conroy

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 […]

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Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Article III Standing of Testers to Bring ADA Website Accessibility Class Actions

October 5, 2023 / October 5, 2023 by Melanie Conroy

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer, a case that we have summarized in prior blog posts. Just months ago, there was doubt whether the Supreme Court would hear the case at all. While the Court granted Acheson Hotels’ petition for a writ of certiorari in March […]

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New England Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Class Action Filings Soar in 2023

September 8, 2023 by Melanie Conroy

Earlier in 2023, we launched our New England and First Circuit Class Action Tracker, as a tool to analyze class action litigation trends in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. In July, we updated our tracker to include data through the second quarter of 2023. A review of new filings submitted during that latest […]

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First Circuit Revives Data Breach Class Action Claims in Webb v. Injured Workers Pharmacy, LLC

July 27, 2023 by Melanie Conroy

Courts and class action counsel have been considering what kinds of injuries can confer standing to pursue federal claims following the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, which held that the defendants’ alleged actions that “deprived [plaintiffs] of their right to receive information in the format required by statute” was not sufficient […]

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Author: Melanie Conroy

Author: Melanie Conroy

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

First Circuit Revives Privacy Class Action Based on Injury and Predominance

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

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

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

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

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

Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Article III Standing of Testers to Bring ADA Website Accessibility Class Actions

New England Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Class Action Filings Soar in 2023

First Circuit Revives Data Breach Class Action Claims in Webb v. Injured Workers Pharmacy, LLC