Arbitration clauses in commercial and consumer contracts can be an effective tool for limiting the time and expense associated with litigation. However, parties always may decide to litigate, assuming neither party seeks to arbitrate. When one party engages in litigation conduct and only later moves to compel arbitration, the other party may argue that the
In a recent published decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit clarified the standards that district courts must apply when certifying discrete issues–rather than an entire action–for classwide adjudication under Rule 23(c)(4).
What Is Rule 23(c)(4)?
Rule 23(c)(4) is an obscure part of federal class action practice. It states, simply,
In the wake of COVID-19, litigants have increasingly sought to excuse contractual performance by invoking force majeure clauses. In the early stages of the pandemic, there were few reported decisions on these matters, and the substance of these rulings echoed the principles that were applied in the pre-COVID era: force majeure clauses are strictly and
On Sept. 23, the Delaware Supreme Court endorsed a new universal three-part demand-futility test in United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Participating Food Industry Employers Tri-State Pension Fund v. Zuckerberg, et al. (Zuckerberg).[1] This universal test combines the traditional demand-futility tests established in Aronson v. Lewis[2] and Rales v. Blasband
Today, the United States Supreme Court resolved a circuit split regarding what constitutes an “autodialer” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In a blow to the plaintiffs’ bar, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of defendant Facebook, establishing a narrower, nationwide standard for what type of dialing equipment constitutes an “autodialer.”
The TCPA prohibits
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 30, 2021, in a case that will help clarify when an intangible, nonmonetary injury is sufficiently “concrete and particularized” to give rise to Article III standing.1 The Supreme Court’s decision will likely provide guidance for class-action plaintiffs seeking to bring (and class-action defendants looking to
Earlier this month, the Eleventh Circuit, in Tsao v. Captiva MVP Restaurant Partners, LLC, No. 18-14959, 2021 WL 381948 (11th Cir. Feb. 4, 2021), affirmed the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of patrons of a restaurant chain, holding that data breach victims must show more than a heightened risk of future
Last March, The New York Times reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had been “quietly making overtures” to older Republican-nominated judges to encourage them to retire so that then-President Trump could fill their vacancies before the end of his term. After the 2020 presidential election, the Los Angeles Times reported that, reciprocally, some federal
In December 2014, the credit risk retention rule, 79 Fed. Reg. 77,601 (the credit risk retention rule), was adopted pursuant to Section 941 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank). The credit risk retention rule requires any “securitizer” of asset-backed securities (or other related parties) to acquire and retain either (i) 5 percent of the face amount of each class of notes issued by the collateralized loan obligation (CLO), (ii) notes of the most subordinated class issued by the CLO representing 5 percent of the fair value of all CLO notes, or (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii) representing 5 percent of the fair value of all CLO notes. The rule was designed to align the interests of the managers and investors in a CLO deal.
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