As a mediator, I frequently encounter global settlement conferences. For those unfamiliar, a global settlement conference is a mediation (typically pre-suit) scheduled by an insurance company when it has determined that their insured’s insurance limits should be tendered due to the number of claimants and the severity of the injuries. All potential claimants are invited to attend the settlement conference
Class actions are like surgery. If you know how to do them, you can significantly help people, make lives better and make some good money in the process. But, if you don’t know how to do them, you can make people’s lives worse, screw them up, and get yourself sued. Sad, but true. Class actions are not just ‘extended versions’
You would like to feel that you are basically safe when you stay at a hotel. If something terrible happens, such as a robbery, assault, rape, or other injuries, you might be right in feeling you should be able to recover damages from the hotel owner. Under negligent security laws, the tenant has some basic responsibilities to keep people safe
Class action defendants try to evade class-wide liability using Rule 67, which governs deposits into court. Defendants’ argue that, under Rule 67, they can pick off named plaintiffs in class action matters by simply depositing with the court funds equal to the value of the named plaintiff’s claim. Federal courts have rejected these attempts to use Rule 67 as a
By now, most people have learned how the opioid crisis has ruined countless lives. As addiction and dependency have spread at a record pace, communities have struggled to keep up with the direct and indirect challenges that have come along with the epidemic. One of the main ways that the medical community has battled opiate addiction is with replacement therapy,
Class counsel, when drafting a class definition, are focused on Rule 23’s commonality, typicality, and predominance requirements. To satisfy those requirements, class counsel will craft a narrow class definition. The narrower the definition, the more likely common questions will predominate. But a class definition can be too narrow – including only those who will prevail on the merits. Such class
Ohio’s saving statute, R.C. 2305.19, permits a plaintiff whose claims are filed within the applicable statute of limitations, but then dismissed otherwise on merits, to refile their claims within one year. Courts have noted the forgiving nature of the statute, explaining that it “is a remedial statute and is to be given a liberal construction to permit the decision of
Class action defendants have developed a mantra that, at the certification stage, “a trial court must undertake a rigorous analysis, which may include probing the underlying merits of the plaintiff’s claim[.]” Stammco, L.L.C. v United Tel. Co. of Ohio. Defendants often improperly interpret the probing of the underlying merits to mean that, instead of addressing the Rule 23 prerequisites when
When a court certifies a class action, due process requires that the class members receive notice. Although email accounts are ubiquitous and generally available for free to anyone with internet access, courts have been reluctant to approve email notice as the primary form of notice to class members. That reluctance is misplaced. Courts have never required that notice in Rule
After class action claims are resolved, sometimes there are remaining funds because some class members can’t be found, died, moved, etc. The class members who did receive their full share are not entitled to a windfall in the form of an additional distribution. Similarly, the defendant is not entitled to keep money it agreed to forfeit in a settlement or
As a mediator, I frequently encounter global settlement conferences. For those unfamiliar, a global settlement conference is a mediation (typically pre-suit) scheduled by an insurance company when it has determined that their insured’s insurance limits should be tendered due to the number of claimants and the severity of the injuries. All potential claimants are invited to attend the settlement conference
Class actions are like surgery. If you know how to do them, you can significantly help people, make lives better and make some good money in the process. But, if you don’t know how to do them, you can make people’s lives worse, screw them up, and get yourself sued. Sad, but true. Class actions are not just ‘extended versions’
You would like to feel that you are basically safe when you stay at a hotel. If something terrible happens, such as a robbery, assault, rape, or other injuries, you might be right in feeling you should be able to recover damages from the hotel owner. Under negligent security laws, the tenant has some basic responsibilities to keep people safe
Class action defendants try to evade class-wide liability using Rule 67, which governs deposits into court. Defendants’ argue that, under Rule 67, they can pick off named plaintiffs in class action matters by simply depositing with the court funds equal to the value of the named plaintiff’s claim. Federal courts have rejected these attempts to use Rule 67 as a
By now, most people have learned how the opioid crisis has ruined countless lives. As addiction and dependency have spread at a record pace, communities have struggled to keep up with the direct and indirect challenges that have come along with the epidemic. One of the main ways that the medical community has battled opiate addiction is with replacement therapy,
Class counsel, when drafting a class definition, are focused on Rule 23’s commonality, typicality, and predominance requirements. To satisfy those requirements, class counsel will craft a narrow class definition. The narrower the definition, the more likely common questions will predominate. But a class definition can be too narrow – including only those who will prevail on the merits. Such class
Ohio’s saving statute, R.C. 2305.19, permits a plaintiff whose claims are filed within the applicable statute of limitations, but then dismissed otherwise on merits, to refile their claims within one year. Courts have noted the forgiving nature of the statute, explaining that it “is a remedial statute and is to be given a liberal construction to permit the decision of
Class action defendants have developed a mantra that, at the certification stage, “a trial court must undertake a rigorous analysis, which may include probing the underlying merits of the plaintiff’s claim[.]” Stammco, L.L.C. v United Tel. Co. of Ohio. Defendants often improperly interpret the probing of the underlying merits to mean that, instead of addressing the Rule 23 prerequisites when
When a court certifies a class action, due process requires that the class members receive notice. Although email accounts are ubiquitous and generally available for free to anyone with internet access, courts have been reluctant to approve email notice as the primary form of notice to class members. That reluctance is misplaced. Courts have never required that notice in Rule
After class action claims are resolved, sometimes there are remaining funds because some class members can’t be found, died, moved, etc. The class members who did receive their full share are not entitled to a windfall in the form of an additional distribution. Similarly, the defendant is not entitled to keep money it agreed to forfeit in a settlement or
