by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, SCOTUS decided the Bristol-Meyers case, limiting the power of state courts to exercise specific personal jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants in cases brought by out-of-state plaintiffs. State courts can still hear cases, including nationwide class actions, through their general jurisdiction over defendants, as long as the defendant is essentially at home in […]
Category Archives: Class Actions
Here. Excerpt: On June 7, a Utah judge will decide whether more than 50 consumers defrauded by banking giant Wells Fargo in its fake account scandal will be forced to pursue claims one by one in a secret arbitration system. Even as the bank’s PR machine loudly trumpets a focus on restoring consumer trust, Wells […]
Here. Excerpt on the CFPB's proposed arbitration reg: [Ballard Spahr's] Alan S. Kaplinsky told Bloomberg BNA that “it would be bordering on reckless” for CFPB Director Richard Cordray to finalize the rule because of the risk it will be overturned under the [Congressional Review Act].* * * Congressional Republicans will be in lock step against […]
Here, in a report by Ted Frank (who is objecting to the settlement) and Will Chamberlain about Kumar v. Salov North America Corp., . Excerpt: The class will probably recover about $320,000 in cash; roughly 65,000 class members jumped through the hoops to file claims worth about $5 each. But class counsel is asking for […]
by Jeff Sovern Sometimes when credit card issuers send out mail solicitations, they experiment with different forms of notice to see which one generates a higher response rate. For example, they may send out one mailing to 10,000 people with one prominent sentence on the outside of the envelope, and another to a similar group with […]
Here. The story reports that AT&T has nearly 150 million customers and that the eighteen claims were filed in the last two years. UPDATE: See comment by Gregory Gauthier below.
by Jeff Sovern It's for an arbitration symposium at Rutgers and is available for download here. I would love to hear comments! Here's the abstract: In September 2016, regulators charged Wells Fargo with opening millions of unauthorized accounts on behalf of its customers. When some of those customers filed class actions against Wells, the bank initially […]
Here. Excerpt: [T]his bill doesn’t fix what’s ailing the system. Instead, it seeks to eliminate group litigation altogether. If it becomes law, the bill could prevent consumers from litigating together the next time a company like Volkswagen masks its emissions and thwart General Motors’ victims from joining forces to recover if their car ignition turns […]
Here. More than half the class members have submitted claims. Claimants are expected to recoup 80% of what they spent. The article attributes the high participation rate to the publicity the case garnered as well as the amounts individual claimants have at issue, as much as $20,000.
Here. Excerpt: Any move by the CFPB to adopt a final version of its rule would almost certainly prompt Republican lawmakers to overturn it, with a long-term chilling effect on future regulation of the clauses used by banks and other financial services providers. But if the CFPB does not put out a final rule before […]