On October 31, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Frank v. Gaos (No. 17-961), a case challenging the use and limits of cy pres deals in class action lawsuits.
Cy pres disbursements, which distribute unclaimed settlement proceeds to certain designated organizations when such funds cannot be feasibly distributed to class members, have been a
On October 23, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington denied a defendant debt collector’s motion to dismiss a class action claim brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act based on the debt collector’s alleged failure to report a debt as disputed in violation of FDCPA § 1692e(8). The Court in
In a recent decision dismissing a purported class action against Zillow Group, Inc., launched by disgruntled purchasers of the company’s securities, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington provided a remarkably thorough—and an eminently useful—distillation of the federal judiciary’s emergent application of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974
Arbitration clauses are ubiquitous in consumer and employment contracts. Frustrated with that widespread use, on October 30, United States House of Representatives members Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced the “Restoring Justice for Workers Act.” The proposed legislation would outlaw use of class action waiver provisions in employment
Alarm.com has agreed to pay $28 million to settle a TCPA class action, which involves allegations that it sent unlawful telemarketing communications to more than 1.2 million consumers. The parties filed a motion for preliminary approval of the class settlement, which is set for hearing on November 27. The case, pending in the Northern
In a decision that reversed a $10 million “collective action” arbitration award, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that whether class or collective arbitration is authorized by an arbitration agreement is a “gateway” decision to be made by the district court, not the arbitrator. The case is Herrington v. Waterstone Mortgage Corp., No.
In its decision, United Food & Commer. Workers Unions & Emplrs. Midwest Health Bens. Fund v. Warner Chilcott Ltd., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 28920, issued on October 17, the First Circuit held an antitrust case could not go forward as a class action where it was evident that many class members had not suffered
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida rejected a defendant’s attempt to dismiss a proposed class action claiming Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) violations for charging excessive fees. The case is Brotz v. Simm Assocs., No. 6:17-cv-1603 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 15, 2018).
In its
On October 18, the Northern District of Georgia issued an Order denying attempts by defendants IDT Corporation and IDT Telecom, Inc. (collectively “IDT”) to strike a putative Telephone Consumer Protection Act class on grounds established in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017). In Dennis v. IDT,
Despite two controlling decisions by the Second Circuit in Avila and Taylor, claims involving the “amount of debt” disclosure under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) continue to evolve thanks to the relentless efforts by the New York plaintiffs’ bar. But these permutations of the “amount of debt” claims continue to be successfully