Today, United States District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan issued LIBOR VII, in which the court granted class certification under Rule 23(b)(3) to a class of plaintiffs who bought over-the-counter instruments that paid interest in terms of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and who allege that LIBOR-setting banks conspired to suppress LIBOR
The Value of Class Actions Just Fell. Again.
Another Term, another chance to gut class actions
If you've watched the Supreme Court over the last several years, you may have marveled at how earnestly some of the justices have worked to render Rule 23 a dead letter. Behold:
- You have to arbitrate class claims individually. AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion, 531 U.S. 321
Why Comcast Corp. v. Behrend Went Off the Air
In Roach v. T.L. Cannon Corp., No. 13-3070-cv (2d Cir. Feb. 10, 2015), the Second Circuit gave a narrow reading of the Supreme Court's ruling on class certification in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 133 S. Ct. 1426 (2013).*
The outcome does not surprise Blawgletter, who had the honor of arguing Comcast Corp.
Securities Class Actions Take Hit
Basic survives — barely
The Supreme Court held today that plaintiffs in securities fraud cases may continue to use a 26-year-old presumption that "the price of stock traded in an efficient market reflects all public, material information — including material misstatements." Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., No. 13-317, slip op. at
Prof. Epstein Explains Why We Should Have Won Comcast Corp. v. Behrend
NYU Law School Professor Richard A. Epstein — "an advocate of minimal legal regulation" and "one of the most influential legal thinkers of modern times" — thinks the U.S. Supreme Court got its ruling wrong in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, No. 11-864 (U.S. Mar. 27, 2013) (post here).
Leaving to one side the
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Amgen Class
The legal landscape for class actions has gotten harder for plaintiffs to cross in the last decade or so. Today it got no worse. And plaintiffs and their counsel rejoice at that.
In Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds, No. 11-1085 (U.S. Feb. 27, 2013), the Court ruled 6-3 that a
Texas Justices Agree on Class
The Supreme Court of Texas held last week that the courts below shouldn't have refused to certify a "takings" case as a class action on the ground that the class representatives couldn't adequately represent the interests of all class members. Riemer v. Patterson, No. 11-0548 (Tex. Feb. 22, 2013).
That doesn't amount to saying
AIG Securities Case Wins Class Okay . . . But Only Because It Settled
Um.
Settling a class action case means you don't have to try it. But does making peace also mean you don't have to turn all the square corners of the class action rule, the one we call 23?
It does. Kind of. At least to the extent it avoids trial problems. The kind that could
Enemy of the Good: Class Cert Doesn’t Require Perfect Proof, Seventh Circuit Says
The Seventh Circuit held last week that a district court set too high a standard for class certification in an antitrust case.
"In essence," the panel ruled, it is important not to let a quest for perfect evidence become the enemy of good evidence." Messner v. Northshore University HealthSystem, No. 10-2514, slip op. 3
Amgen Class Gets Ninth Circuit Okie Dokie; Living in a Materiality World
The Ninth Circuit today upheld an order that granted class status to a federal securities fraud case against Amgen. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds v. Amgen Inc., No. 09-56965 (9th Cir. Oct. 8, 2011).
The panel gave the back of its hand to Amgen's jutting chin of a point — that the class