On August 9 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) filed its responsive brief in one of three cases before the Supreme Court that may determine the future validity of individual arbitration agreements in the employment sector. Since 2012,
Class Action & Mass Torts
District Court Follows Arbuckle in Determining that CAFA’s “Local Controversy” Exception Does Not Apply Where Ambiguities in Class Definitions Exist
Municipal Water Authority of Westmoreland County v CNX Gas Co L L C , 2016 WL 5025752 (W.D. Pa. Sep. 20, 2016).
In this case the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (“District Court”) denied a plaintiff’s…
Employer’s Use of Non-Compliant Disclosure Form Did Not Result in Concrete Injury Under Fair Credit Reporting Act
A job applicant alleging a violation of one of the procedural requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) lacked standing to sue under Article III of the United States Constitution because he failed to allege facts showing he suffered…
Game Over: Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Xbox Plaintiffs’ Attempt to Create Appellate Review
In April, we reported on the oral argument in Microsoft Corp. v. Baker, a Supreme Court case addressing whether putative class members may obtain appellate review of orders denying class certification by voluntarily dismissing their individual claims with prejudice. Recently,…
Eight Circuit Upholds Class Certification, Grant of Summary Judgment, And Holds Fee-Shifting Provision Applies to Class Action
McKeage v. TMBC, LLC, 2017 WL 562456 (8th Cir. 2017).
In an action removed under CAFA, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs, but reversed the District Court’s determination of attorneys’ fee and…
Texas Supreme Court Issues Important Decision On How To Calculate Ratio Of Punitive To Compensatory Damages In Multi-Defendant Cases
Application of the Supreme Court’s excessiveness guideposts to cases involving multiple defendants is one of the more confounding problems that arises in punitive damages jurisprudence. The Supreme Court of Texas got the issue right in Horizon Health Corp. v. Acadia…
EEOC’s Motion For Sanctions Granted Over Employer’s Failure To Preserve And Produce Records
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik
Seyfarth Synopsis: In an EEOC lawsuit alleging that an employer failed to reasonably accommodate its Muslim employees’ requests for prayer breaks, a federal court in Colorado granted the EEOC’s motion…
EEOC’s Motion For Sanctions Granted Over Employer’s Failure To Preserve And Produce Records
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik
Seyfarth Synopsis: In an EEOC lawsuit alleging that an employer failed to reasonably accommodate its Muslim employees’ requests for prayer breaks, a federal court in Colorado granted the EEOC’s motion…
New Jersey passes new drivers license swipe law
In enacting the Personal Information and Privacy Protection Act (S-1913), New Jersey joins a growing minority of states with so-called “swipe laws.” New Jersey’s law generally aligns with swipe laws in the approximately one-third of other states with such…
“Commonsense” Works In Invoking Home State Exception to CAFA
In this case, the plaintiffs, newspaper subscribers, brought a putative class action in the state court alleging that the defendant corporation owns several newspapers throughout…