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
…
Late last year, the Eleventh Circuit ruled on the preclusive effect of a state-certified class action in federal court. The Federalist Society very kindly asked me to comment on it for their online journal Engage. It turned out to be a really interesting project, because what started out as an opinion about preclusion turned…
Last year, a jury in New York City decided one of the few securities class actions ever to go to trial. Lest anyone think that a jury verdict is ever the end of a piece of complex litigation, the Southern District of New York released a post-trial opinion last week. The opinion is…
Bench trials comprise a significant percentage of class-action trials. And class-action defense lawyers are often conflicted about whether it’s better to try a case in front of a jury or a judge. A judge may be better equipped to sort through some of the more complex issues in the case, but sometimes complexity can favor…
Class actions rarely go to trial, so it’s rare to learn anything from published decisions about how a class action gets tried. However, in Pierce v. County of Orange, the Ninth Circuit had to grapple with several evidentiary issues unique to class action. In Pierce, several prisoners in Orange County’s prison system filed a…
