The past quarter has seen several new types of class actions against insurers and new twists on the well-worn theory of total loss claims, as well as some new life breathed into long-running labor depreciation class actions.…

Partner Rand McClellan recently posted an article to BakerHostetler’s Financial Services Blog on the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling on what constitutes an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the current uncertainty about the definition of an ATDS.…

Last month, the Sixth Circuit in Macy et al v. GC Services Ltd Partnership unanimously upheld certification of a class under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), despite arguments that the named plaintiffs failed to establish Article III standing. The court held the plaintiffs established a concrete injury in fact, without alleging any additional harm beyond a procedural violation of the FDCPA, because they demonstrated that the allegedly incomplete disclosures in debt collection letters…

This quarter has seen a few new types of class actions against insurers as well as aging of some more mature theories wending their way through the courts. BakerHostetler’s Class Action Defense – Insurance team has published a report with more insight. Click here to read the Insurance Class Action Quarterly Update.…

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided China AgriTech, Inc. v. Resh, No. 17-432, 584 U.S. __ (2018) and held that the American Pipe doctrine, which tolls the statute of limitations to permit members of a putative class to bring individual claims in the event class certification is denied, does not toll the statute of limitation for putative class actions. The case provides greater certainty to class action exposure for companies by preventing plaintiffs from…

In Comcast v. Behrend, 569 U.S. 27 (2013), the United States Supreme Court clarified the requirements for establishing that classwide injury and damages predominate over individual issues for the purposes of FRCP 23(b)(3). In particular, where a party relies on a damages model to establish predominance, the model must be consistent with the theory of liability and “measure those damages attributable to that theory.” Id. at 35. A defendant may challenge the damages model to…