Class Actions Brief Blog

Not every class action court filing in North and South Carolina becomes a full-length post on our blog. Here is a recap of February's filings:

Bradley, et al. v. Samsung Electronics, et al., No. 1:17-cv-00171 (M.D.N.C. February 28, 2017) (purported class action brought under various state consumer protection and trade practice laws alleging defendants manufactured home washing machines with a defect that caused explosion during normal use.)

Matthews, et al. v. TCL Communication Inc.,  No. 3:17-cv-00095 (W.D.N.C. February 27, 2017) (putative class action removed from ...

The nomination of Tenth Circuit Judge Neil M. Gorsuch for the Supreme Court has jurists and reporters forecasting how, if confirmed, he will rule in cases raising “hot” Constitutional issues. The “hot” question for those of us who litigate class actions is how Justice Gorsuch would engage the next landmark class action, especially since he would replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Court, author of two of the most significant class action opinions in recent years, Comcast Corp. v. Behrend and Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes.

We will be examining some of Judge Gorsuch’s ...

In this space, we concentrate on class action decisions in the Carolinas, as well as Fourth Circuit and United States Supreme Court precedent. Occasionally, though, we venture beyond these jurisdictions to highlight issues of particular note, including those where courts are divided. We’ve previously reported here how offers of judgment interact with mootness. In Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, the United States Supreme Court held that an unaccepted settlement offer, even if it offers all relief sought in the case, does not render a case moot when the affected party seeks relief ...

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, recently introduced a bill that would make significant changes to federal class action litigation. The Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017 (H.R. 985) states that it is intended to allow prompt recoveries to plaintiffs with legitimate claims and “diminish abuses in class action and mass tort litigation that are undermining the integrity of the U.S. legal system.”

In its current form, the draft bill would likely eclipse the 2005 passage of the Class Action Fairness Act as the most significant ...

Last week, we observed that the Supreme Court appeared to be waiting for a ninth justice to decide in an important case involving appealability of class action certification decisions. A news report today* indicates that the Supreme Court has also pushed out arguments concerning the enforceability of class action waivers. As we recently reported in this space, the Court had agreed in three cases to decide whether the NLRA prohibits employers from requiring non-management employees covered by the NLRA to arbitrate their work-related claims individually. For employers ...

About a year ago, the United States Supreme Court granted Microsoft’s petition to review this question: “Whether a federal court of appeals has jurisdiction under both Article III and 28 U.S.C. Section 1291 to review an order denying class certification after the named plaintiffs voluntarily dismiss their individual claims with prejudice.” Briefing in the case was completed last June, but the case has yet to appear in the calendar of the fourth sitting of the Supreme Court’s term, which began January 9, 2017. Although the reasons for the delay aren’t pellucid, this is an ...