Ninth Circuit Opens New Path Back to State Court for Class Actions Removed to Federal Court

By design, the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) allows defendants to remove complex class actions to federal court. It avoids the onerous diversity requirements that defendants previously struggled to satisfy, and its $5 million amount-in-controversy threshold is often easy to meet in large class actions. In response, plaintiffs have often thrown up roadblocks to removal through artful pleading designed to avoid federal jurisdiction. When that fails, some may try to amend their pleading to destroy jurisdiction after removal.

A recent Ninth Circuit decision addressed a particularly aggressive post-removal gambit.

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