The Fifth Circuit for a long time has seemed to insist on paying class counsel on a pure lodestar basis — hours x hourly rates. It looked to have stuck itself to the old-style lodestar method under Johnson v. Ga. Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir. 1974).
That contrasts with other circuits'
What do you do if you paid a bunch of money to settle a class action but some of the class members who didn't opt out demand that you arbitrate a dispute relating, at least in part, to the subject matter of the claims you settled?
You start by asking the arbitrators to stay their
The Third Circuit today affirmed a class certification order in an antitrust case.
The case, Behrend v. Comcast Corp., No. 10-2865 (3d Cir. Aug. 23, 2011), involves claims that Comcast violated sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and that the antitrust violations allowed Comcast to overcharge Philadelphia cable subscribers.
The court's 2-1
Some people think most class actions exist to reward the lawyers, not the members of the class. Blawgletter doesn't think that, but some people do.
And then a case like In re Bluetooth Headset Products Liability Litig., No. 09-56683 (9th Cir. Aug. 19, 2011), comes along. It likely didn't start as a platform for
With the U.S. Supreme Court making the test for class actions tougher, you may see a short-term increase in denials of class treatment. You may as a result also witness a surge in class members' filing cases where they assert the now-dead class claims on an individual basis.
But what if — as often happens
The Supreme Court today struck down a class action for 1.5 million women who claimed that Walmart Stores based employment decisions on gender. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, No. 10-277 (U.S. June 20, 2011).
The Court ruled 5-4 that no "common" questions existed under Rule 23(a)(2) because the plaintiffs didn't offer proof of a discriminatory company-wide policy.
The Supreme Court today halted an effort by a federal court to stop a class action in a state court.
The case involved claims against drug-maker Bayer over Baycol, which Bayer sold as a way to lower cholesterol. The plaintiffs alleged that Baycol killed and injured people.
The district court in Minneapolis ruled against
Awhile back, Blawgletter inquired if Google would, in asking for a federal court okay to a copyright pact in a massive class action, reveal itself at long last as not the Don't Be Evil people but instead as the Big Bad Wolf. See "Who's Afraid of Google Books? Tra La La La La".
In case you missed the en banc argument on Wednesday to the Third Circuit in Sullivan v. DB Investments Inc., No. 08-2784 (audio file here; post on panel decision here), Blawgletter offers our fragmentary notes below.
[By way of background, a panel of the Third Circuit ruled that, because some states don't allow indirect
The U.S. Supreme Court today granted review of a Ninth Circuit ruling that allowed a class of California women to pursue sex discrimination claims against Walmart. Order List, Dec. 6, 2010, at 2.
The Ninth Circuit held en banc that the case could move ahead as a class action under Rule 23(b)(2) on the women's claims