Class Actions Brief Blog

Since the Supreme Court’s opinion in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 594 U.S. 413 (2021), litigants and courts alike have struggled to determine whether certain intangible harms are “concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent” such that a plaintiff has standing to sue. Indeed, this blog has previously analyzed cases addressing that question here and here.

The Fourth Circuit weighed in recently, holding that a subset of plaintiffs whose drivers’ license numbers were leaked and published online had standing to sue, but the plaintiffs whose numbers were leaked and ...

Two Missouri pets—and what’s in their prescription food—may ultimately determine where and how class actions are litigated. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court held oral argument in Royal Canin U.S.A. Inc. v. Wullschleger, where the central question is whether putative class action plaintiffs who have had their cases removed to federal court can amend their complaints to strip references to federal jurisdiction and return to state court.

Royal Canin began in 2019, when the owners of a dog named Carter and a cat named Sassie filed a proposed class action in Missouri ...

In general, a litigant cannot sue for another person’s injury. In that circumstance, the litigant has no “standing” to pursue those claims. But Rule 23 — at least in a broad sense — allows a class representative to assert claims for her own injuries and for the injuries experienced by others, at least if the class representative’s claim is “typical” and there are “common questions” at issue.

Analytically, these are different concepts. Standing, at least in federal courts, relates to a court’s constitutional jurisdiction, is most often determined at the ...

Last month, the United States House of Representatives passed the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, or the “FAIR Act.” The FAIR Act, should it be passed by the Senate and signed into law, would prohibit class action waivers and mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements in a wide range of disputes:

• Employment disputes that arise out of or relate to the work relationship or prospective work relationship, including disputes regarding discipline and/or termination of employment and terms of payment for advertising, recruiting, referrals and arrangements.
• Consumer ...

Last month, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case that would determine whether the Court’s 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California would extend to federal class actions.

In Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Supreme Court ruled that in mass tort actions, state courts do not have specific personal jurisdiction over claims by plaintiffs who were not injured in and do not live in the forum state. There, a national group of plaintiffs sued a New York and Delaware-based pharmaceutical company in California court, alleging the defendant’s drug ...