Most defendants are familiar with Rule 23 or its state-law equivalents, and there’s no question that a tried-and-true method of opposing class certification is to attempt to show that the plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of satisfying Rule 23’s requirements. But defendants should not be afraid to invoke the U.S. Constitution itself to attack class actions. To that end, I am co-authoring (with colleagues Kevin Ranlett and Phil Dupré) a six-part series of articles for Inside Counsel addressing potential constitutional challenges to class actions. Here’s the first installment, which provides an overview of those arguments. I hope readers will find the series of interest.
