A recent opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit illustrates the importance of carefully scrutinizing classwide liability theories, even where district courts have flexibility assessing classwide damages theories. See Sampson v. United Servs. Auto. Ass’n, No. 22-30351, — F.4th —, 2023 WL 6533181 (5th Cir. Oct. 6, 2023).

According to…

BakerHostetler released its 2023 Q1 Insurance Class Action Quarterly Report, which summarizes a variety of insurance class action themes. Total loss class actions kept going around the country, and labor depreciation class actions experienced ups and downs, depending on one’s viewpoint. New class actions involving sales tax depreciation, appraisal and privacy claims for data shared…

On March 28, 2023, the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (Committee) convened in West Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss a variety of proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including a new rule that would provide guidance about initial case management procedures in multidistrict litigation (MDL).

Appointed by the chief justice of the…

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision that highlights a growing disagreement among federal appellate courts as to whether class action settlements may include a cash incentive award to named plaintiffs for serving as class representatives. This deepening debate creates uncertainty as to whether incentive awards will continue…

BakerHostetler released its Insurance Class Action Quarterly Report for 2022 Quarter 4, devolving trends in the insurance class action space from the past quarter. We witnessed further development of total loss, uninsured/underinsured motorist and COVID-19 premium rebate class actions, along with movement in new(er) property and casualty class actions involving discrimination in claims adjusting and…

As predicted back in March 2022, class litigation related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has accelerated over the past year. PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that have been widely used in various industrial and consumer products. Companies that have manufactured, used or disposed of PFAS are facing an increasingly volatile legal…

Nearly two years after it issued its initial decision in Johnson v. NPAS Sols., LLC, in which it held incentive awards for class representatives to be per se unlawful, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc, on Aug. 3, 2022. In choosing not to…