Commercial litigator Brooks Gresham and products liability litigator Trent Taylor bring us some timely thoughts about reliance from a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a food-labeling class action.
Leonardo da Vinci, among many other laudable epithets, has been called “the last person who knew everything,” as…
After watching an infomercial, Harry Wiedenbeck bought a "comprehensive" medical health insurance plan for himself and his wife. When the insurer subsequently denied a claim based on his wife’s hospitalization, Mr. Wiedenbeck filed a class action alleging fraud and bad faith on behalf of all Wisconsin residents who had bought the plan.
The subsequent case…
In Rowe v. Bankers Life & Cas. Co., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43198 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 29, 2012), Estella Rowe, a senior citizen, bought an equity-indexed deferred annuity. After she did so, she learned that this particular kind of annuity (like most annuities) is not a very good investment. So she…
I’ve written before about the uses to which defense counsel can put a well-taken named plaintiff deposition. And, once again, an opinion has come along that showcases just how important the named plaintiff deposition is as a weapon to defeat class certification.
The case, Burns v. Bayer Corp., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33183 (S.D.
It’s June, which means the Supreme Court is issuing a spate of opinions to finish out its 2010-11 term. Yesterday, the Court announced its opinion for Erica John Fund v. Halliburton. It’s a short opinion, and a unanimous one. (Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion for the 9-0 Court.)
As you may remember…
As a class action lawyer (and one who defends class actions, no less), I often face the problem of explaining to friends and family exactly what I do all day. The cases themselves are often interesting, but the way we lawyers go about defending them–by mastering the arcana of one of the Federal Rules of…
Greg Mortenson turned a passion for mountain-climbing and an interest in helping the women of Central Asia into a multimillion dollar charitable foundation and a bestselling book. The book, Three Cups of Tea, tells the story of how his failed attempt to scale K2 (considered one of the hardest peaks in the world) led to…
In the last few years, statutory non-disclosure have become more common among class-action filings. They allow the plaintiffs to assert fraud-like claims that can arouse public (or judicial) sympathy, without necessarily having to worry about proving individualized reliance the way they would if they had alleged a common-law fraud claim.
A recent case, Noel v.
See, here’s the thing. Russell Jackson stole my case. The Seventh Circuit decided an important case on the limits of Rule 23(b)(2)–Kartman v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins.–and I set it aside to blog about today. But Jackson’s great writeup covers everything I wanted to.
And here’s the other thing. There have…
2011 has produced a number of class actions that have caught the attention of the news media. The class action against Taco Bell, for example, made headlines for the innovation involved in the defendant’s PR strategy. The class action against former President Carter capitalized on a novel theory and a famous defendant. Now, a…
