First Class Defense

Category: Class Actions

Class Actions Class Notice Massachusetts Decisions

Kingara v. Secure Home Health Care Inc. and the Precertification Powers of the Massachusetts Courts

April 19, 2022 / January 12, 2023 by Don Frederico

The Backdrop Class actions are like butterflies; they must undergo a metamorphosis before they fly. The transformation occurs when a court grants class certification. At that instant, what had started out as an individual lawsuit emerges as its own entity, with a number of legal consequences flowing from the change. Among them, plaintiff’s counsel becomes […]

Appeals Class Actions Consumer Class Actions Privacy Class Actions Standing Supreme Court

Supreme Court Addresses Concrete Harm, Limits Standing in FCRA Class Action

June 28, 2021 by Melanie Conroy

On June 25, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated 5-4 ruling in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez. In a 27-page decision by Justice Kavanaugh, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding the certification of a class of 8,185 consumers whom the credit reporting agency TransUnion had mistakenly labeled as potential terrorists and drug traffickers. […]

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Article III standing class action class action standing class actions consumer class action consumer data privacy data privacy class action data privacy law FCRA litigation Rule 23 standing supreme court

Class Actions Maine Decisions

A Survey and Comparison of Federal and Maine Class Action Law

July 16, 2020 / July 17, 2020 by Josh Dunlap

I’m pleased to say that I recently published an article, Class Actions: A Survey and Comparison of Federal Law and Maine State Law, that considers Maine class action law in light of federal law, particularly case law in the First Circuit. While class actions are prevalent at the national level, the story thus far has […]

Class Actions First Circuit Decisions Privacy Class Actions

First Circuit Holds That College Does Not Owe Fiduciary Duties to Students, Rejects Data Privacy Class Action Claims

April 3, 2020 by Melanie Conroy

On March 25, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Squeri v. Mount Ida College upheld the lower court’s dismissal of prospective and former Mount Ida College students’ claims against the college and its Board of Trustees arising from the college’s abrupt closure and sale of its campus to UMass Amherst in May 2018. […]

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Chapter 93A class action class actions consumer data privacy data privacy data privacy class action data privacy law District of Massachusetts education litigation fiduciary duty First Circuit higher education litigation privacy class action student class action universities and colleges

Appeals Class Actions Litigation

Two Courts of Appeals Issue Decisions Addressing Whether Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Personal Jurisdiction Holding Extends to Class Actions

March 17, 2020 / May 17, 2024 by Katherine Kayatta

We have previously written about the Supreme Court’s personal jurisdiction decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017) and how the federal district courts were applying it. Now, two Courts of Appeals have finally weighed in, issuing the very first appellate decisions addressing whether Bristol-Myers applies to class actions in […]

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.