A class action plaintiff is shocked at the discovery. [ABA Journal, WSJ Law Blog] And a contrasting view: Max Kennerly. More: Stephen Richer, WLF.
Posts Tagged ‘class actions’
“I’m not embarrassed at all by the fee”
Plaintiff’s lawyers agreed to seek a maximum of $99.9 million in fees in the settlement of the Cobell class action over federal mismanagement of Indian tribal trust funds. Now, however, a different number has suddenly appeared on the agenda: $223 million. [National Law Journal]
Taco Bell: “Thank you for suing us”
The restaurant chain responds with full-page newspaper ads to a headline-grabbing Beasley Allen lawsuit charging that its beef filling flunks federal standards for meat content. [ad via AP, Atlantic Wire, ABC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution] More: NPR (company has produced superhero cartoon spoof defending its product).
Ted Frank on the Dukes v. Wal-Mart class action
The problem, Ted writes in the Examiner, isn’t that the class action is “too large” — even very large classes can sometimes fit the law’s requirements that each claim be identical in nature and capable of standing or falling together.
But the theory of the Dukes lawsuit is exactly the opposite: the plaintiffs claimed that Wal-Mart’s central office did not exercise enough authority over each of its 3,400 stores; each of the individual managers’ discretionary employment or promotion decisions–whether made by male or female managers–was, on average, discriminatory; and thus Wal-Mart was responsible for a policy that “fosters or facilitates” discrimination. …
The discrimination laws permit Wal-Mart to defend itself by demonstrating that the challenged job decision was made for a reason other than gender. For example, looking at Betty Dukes, the named plaintiff, alone, we learn that she had a female manager and that she was repeatedly disciplined for returning late from lunch breaks. …Wal-Mart is stripped of its defense because the individualized defense would be inconvenient to trying the case as a class action. …
If the Supreme Court rules in Wal-Mart’s favor later this year, it will not be to protect business, but to protect due process.
McDonald’s obesity class action dismissed
It took eight years to get the wretched thing thrown out. [noted earlier; Wajert, Frank, Bader]
November 21 roundup
- Federalist Society annual convention (which I attended) included panels on anonymity and the First Amendment, judicial recusals, many other topics;
- Nomination of R.I.’s McConnell to federal bench could soon reach Senate floor [ProJo]
- “Why U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying Brazilian Cotton Growers $147 Million” [NPR via Popehat]
- “Litigation Governance: Taking Adequacy Seriously” [Trask, Class Action Countermeasures]
- “Family” groups vs. a family, cont’d: Vermont Supreme Court upholds Miller-Jenkins custody ruling [Volokh, BTB]
- OSHA allows more comment on what could be an extremely expensive mandate against noise in the workplace [ShopFloor]
- Cops who inform on cops are often left to twist in wind [Balko]
- Interview with Mark Zaid, collector of comic book art with law/legal themes [Abnormal Use]
Objecting to the Classmates.com class action settlement
Today is the last day for class members to object in the Classmates.com class action settlement —$117 thousand for the class, $1.05 million for the attorneys. For more details on how to file, see my post at the Center for Class Action Fairness (which is not affiliated with Overlawyered).
Guardian advances litigation urban legends
The venerable British newspaper — at least someone there in charge of selecting pictures and captions — seems to have fallen for an old bit of fiction about an insurance customer who supposedly tried to collect on the loss of his cigars via fire, as an example of “odd American lawsuits.” One wonders why papers fall back on hoary email legends when they could have readily found hundreds upon hundreds of genuine examples of odd American lawsuits right here.
Incidentally, the reader who makes it through the underlying opinion piece (by Neil Rose) does eventually learn that the cigar fable is one of a class of stories “most of [which] are apocryphal or didn’t get anywhere, such as the case against the dry cleaners.” This is not really up to snuff as a way of warning readers off the cigar tale, and it’s grossly misleading as a description of the Roy Pearson dry-cleaners pants suit, which Pearson kept going for years at a very real and serious cost to his targets, the Chung family. Much of the point of the Neil Rose article seems to be to assure British readers that the American way of litigation may be safely emulated, since its costs are not really so bad. If that’s the argument, shouldn’t the piece convey a fairer picture of those costs?
November 8 roundup
- “Dad Settles Suit Against Crocs Over Daughter’s Escalator Injury” [ABA Journal, Knoxville News]
- Almost unheard-of: “California state bar to investigate 130 prosecutors” [LEF]
- Judge flays U.S.-based lawyer in Chevron-Ecuador suit [Law.com, more, Dan Fisher/Forbes]
- “Federal Government Acknowledges Constitutional Limits on Housing Discrimination Law” [Eugene Volokh on HUD dismissal of “Christian-roommate” complaint, earlier]
- “Brave and brilliant decision” from Judge Posner points way to provide relief from class action plaintiffs who won’t accept defeat [McConnell and Beck, Trask]
- “Referring to Former Boss as Slimebag Does Not Constitute Disparagement, At Least in Ohio” [Robert Fitzpatrick]
- “Couldn’t get elected dogcatcher” — actually, dogcatching’s harder than being a Senator [Christopher Beam, Slate]
- Midterm election wipeout — for Republicans, that is [four years ago on Overlawyered]
“Game Over for Plaintiffs in Wii Class Action”
The unsuccessful lawsuit claimed the wrist straps were prone to breaking, making it too easy to throw the controller through one’s TV set. [Wajert, earlier] More: Abnormal Use.