At the end of last week, the Supreme Court decided American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, which further refined the Court’s approach to arbitration of class actions. Most importantly, it eliminated the "vindication of rights" exception to enforcing arbitration clauses. (That was the doctrine that held that a court need not
Justice Scalia
Due Process and Class Action Defense
By The Editors on
Posted in Strategy
Defendants often argue that limiting the evidence they can produce in a class action violates their rights to due process. It’s an argument we take very seriously, but since it’s usually not the centerpiece of the argument, many defense arguments mention the concept briefly and then move on to the intricacies of Rule 23 or…
Posner on Scalia
By The Editors on
Posted in Strategy
Dreaded deadline doom on a few projects (and some actual paying work) means that, unfortunately, today’s post will have to be light on original content.
Fortunately, Judge Posner has an excellent review of Justice Scalia’s new book up at The New Republic, so I can just direct you there. It’s classic Posner…
The Problem with Trial by Formula
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice
In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, Justice Scalia registered his disapproval of using statistics to litigate liability in a class action, writing
The Court of Appeals believed that it was possible to replace such proceedings with Trial by Formula. A sample set of the class members would be selected, as to whom liability for
…
Class Action Collation
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Many apologies for providing you all with just a linkdump for my Tuesday entry, but I’m lying in bed with a triple-digit fever. Still, there are certainly other legal blogs that do a thoughtful job of covering class-action issues, and I’m lucky that several of them have great entries right now.
- Justice Scalia has stayed
…
Foreign-Cubed Class Actions: The End of an Endangered Species
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice
Last Thursday, in Morrison v. National Australia Bank (slip op.), the Supreme Court held 8-0 (Sotomayor, J. not participating) that “foreign-cubed” class actions (where the plaintiff, the defendant, and the sale of the security are all located outside the US) did not have sufficient ties to the United States to justify invoking US securities laws…
Supreme Court Rules That Rule 23 Preempts State Law Governing Class Actions
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice
The Supreme Court issued an opinion in Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates v. Allstate Insurance Company yesterday.
The case stemmed from a class action that had been filed in New York state. The class action arose after a woman was injured in a car accident. She was treated by Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates (the plaintiff). To…