Category Archives: Class Actions

Federal Roundup judge calls class action settlement filthy and mindboggling

So Amanda Bronstad reports at Law.com in Federal Roundup Judge Refuses to Step Into ‘Mind-Boggling’ $7.25B Class Settlement. Excerpt: [Judge] Chhabria said, “You have a meeting with the judge on the day you filed it, a prearranged meeting with the judge on the day you filed it. You say it was in open court, but it […]

Amicus brief attacks Roundup class action settlement

Last month, we published a guest post by Hofstra consumer law scholar Norm Silber expressing serious concerns about a proposed Roundup class action settlement. Professors Silber and Myriam Gilles of Northwestern have coauthored an amicus brief urging a federal court to grant injunctive or declaratory relief to enable the court to evaluate aspects of the […]

ProPublica: “A Slap in the Face”: Trump’s DOJ Plans to Settle Predatory Lending Case Without Compensating Victims

Here, by  Zach Despart. Excerpt: Three years later, the Trump administration and Colony Ridge are on the verge of resolving the case. But the $68 million proposed settlement provides no money for victims of the alleged scheme. Instead, it sets aside $20 million for policing and immigration enforcement — a provision that may be used […]

Guest Post by Hofstra’s Norm Silber: Surprise One-Sided Mass Tort Claim Settlement of the Roundup litigation

A comprehensive settlement of Roundup herbicide litigation is marching through the Missouri courts and scheduled to be finalized within the next three months.  There will be a flurry of media reports soon, emanating chiefly from the companies and the compensated class counsel who recommend the proposed deal.  This settlement is extremely disturbing to many affected […]

Fourth Circuit Clarifies Rules on Pre-Discovery Class Certification Decisions

In Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union, decided today, the Fourth Circuit clarified both the procedure and substantive standards that govern when defendants ask a court to deny class certification before discovery. Oliver was a putative class action challenging Navy Federal’s underwriting process for loan applicants as racially discriminatory. Navy Federal moved to dismiss under Rule […]

Ninth Circuit Requires Proof of Standing for FCRA Unnamed Class Members at Summary Judgment

After James Healy sued Milliman, a company that sells reports containing consumer’s medical histories to third-party insurers, alleging that the reports were inaccurate and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the district court certified a class of consumers who were the subjects of inaccurate reports.  Milliman moved for partial summary judgment on the grounds that […]

Sixth Circuit allows TCPA class action to proceed where consent cannot be proved on a classwide basis

David Eliiot claims Humana called him numerous times despite not being a Humana customer, and after he informed Humana that it had the wrong number. He brought a class action alleging this violated the TCPA. Humana opposed class certification on the grounds that whether individuals had actually consented to repeated calls was not ascertainable on […]

8th Circuit Reverses Certification of Folgers Consumer Class Action

Just after Thanksgiving last week, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion reversing a district court’s certification of a class in one of several actions brought by a consumer against Folgers and consolidated by the JPML. In the action on appeal, the consumer had alleged that representations on coffee containers featured misrepresentations about the number of […]

9th Circuit kicks “Germ Removal” wipes class action on amount-in-controversy grounds

Several consumers filed California state law class actions against Kimberly-Clark in federal district court, alleging that they were misled into believing that Kleenex Germ Removal wet wipes contained germicides, not just soaps. The district court dismissed the non-California plaintiffs’ claims for lack of personal jurisdiction,  and dismissed the remaining claims with prejudice on the grounds that […]

Will banks bring class actions?

That’s a possibility raised by Alan Kaplinsky in his analysis of the Supreme Court’s universal injunction case, Trump v. CASA, at Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor Blog. Because CASA will make it harder for consumer financial service companies to seek injunctions against CFPB regs, etc., Mr. Kaplinsky suggests they may resort to class actions, though […]