I’ve written before about the the growing defense tactic of filing early challenges to class certification. Last week, Law360 reporter Leigh Kamping-Carder reported on the trend. (Subscription required.) While she interviews a plaintiff’s attorney (who wonders if everyone went to the same seminar), the most interesting part is the interviews with defense attorneys about the strategic concerns involved in filing a motion to strike. 

"If you can resolve class issues before conducting discovery, that’s tremendously advantageous to a defendant,’ [Dykma Gossett PLLC attorney J. Kevin] Snyder said. "As a defense lawyer doing mostly defensive class actions, you’re always looking for ways to save your clients money," he added.

On the other hand, the lawyers Kamping-Carder interviews also express concern about the disadvantages to moving early. Leaving aside the mixed success rate with motions to strike, they worry about what happens if the court denies the motion:

"Then you’ve basically just given the plaintiffs a road map of what you’re going to say," as well as a month to take discovery to oppose your best arguments," [Venable LLP partner Daniel B.] Chammas said.

If the motion backfires and defendants lose, they have a court on record holding that the case should proceed as a class action, [Mannatt Phelps & Philips attorney Brad W.] Selling said."

In general, I would say that excessive caution about motions to strike class allegations is not necessary. If the defendant frames it properly, as a challenge to flaws that are apparent on the face of the complaint , then the effect of a denial are the same as a denial of a motion to dismiss. The defendant will not have given away its strongest fact-based arguments, and a denial of arguments based on plaintiff’s allegations is not likely to hold that the plaintiff is entitled to certification as a matter of law. At the same time, the motion to strike gives the defendant a chance to prime the court to think about the difficulties involved in certifying a class. Like all of these lawyers advised, one should only move to strike class allegations when one has strong arguments; but assuming the defendant has not asserted weak arguments, the benefits of moving to strike class allegations largely outweigh the risks.