In the past few years, Professor Mark Moller of DePaul University Law School has proven to be one of the most thoughtful critics of modern class action law in the legal academy. While most commentators take on class action decisions from either a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant standpoint, Professor Moller appears intent on evaluating these opinions
Richard Nagareda
Highlights from the ALI Principles of Aggregated Litigation Panel
By The Editors on
Posted in Presentations
My apologies for posting late this week; I’m suffering from a little jet lag. I spent yesterday in Virginia at the annual conference for the American College of Court Business Judges, where John Beisner and I were presenting a number of developments in class action litigation. Today I’m England, and by tonight, I will be…
Book Review – Mass Torts in a World of Settlement
By The Editors on
Posted in Settlement
Richard Nagareda’s object in Mass Torts in a World of Settlement, his only book-length theoretical work, was to show how settlements operate in a world in which aggregated litigation is common, and trial almost unheard of.
One of Nagareda’s primary observations is that settlements of mass torts are best handled by some administrative apparatus. …
The Dukes Opinion – Commonality and Monetary Relief
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Today, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated opinion in Wal-Mart v. Dukes.
For those who like to skip ahead to the end to figure out whether their side won, the Court ruled in favor of Wal-Mart. That said, the real winner was the late Professor Richard Nagareda, whose articles on commonality clearly influenced Justice…
Revisiting “Aggregation and Its Discontents”
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification, Settlement
On Monday, I reported on the passing of Vanderbilt Professor Richard Nagareda. Given the widespread recognition of his contributions to studying aggregated litigation, it seemed appropriate to revisit one of his better articles: Aggregation and Its Discontents: Class Settlement Pressure, Class-Wide Arbitration, and CAFA, which originally appeared in the Columbia Law Review in…
What Makes a Common Question Common?
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
All too often, courts and class-action litigants take the question of commonality for granted. But, when framed properly, the question of commonality can provide a court with the tools necessary to engage in a truly rigorous analysis of a proposed class.
In his recent essay "Common Answers for Class Certification," noted professor…
The Value of Early Challenges: Richard Nagareda’s 1938 All Over Again
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice
Vanderbilt law professor Richard Nagareda has written an essay for the DePaul Law Review entitled "1938 All Over Again?: Pre-trial as Trial in Complex Litigation." For the most part, this essay is a 30,000-foot view of litigation that emphasizes “cost imposition” (academic-speak for the idea that each party might try to drive up the other…