By Rebecca Bjork and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.
A new Rule 23 decision caught our eye this week – the ruling in July v. Board of School Commissioners, No. 11-CV-0539, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74500 (S.D. Ala. May 28, 2013). This decision to deny class certification matters because it shows how plaintiffs’ continuing attempts to use (abuse?) the rule
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Kathryn Palamountain
As discussed here, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decertification of a nationwide class in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011), former class members have filed a number of follow-on class actions against Wal-Mart. We have also blogged here and here that district
By Jason P. Stiehl and Jeffrey P. Swatzell
On May 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Mississippi ex rel. Hood v. AU Optronics Corp., Docket No. 12-1036, a price-fixing case between the State of Mississippi and a number of electronics companies. The Supreme Court agreed to determine whether a state’s parens patriae action is removable as
By Jennifer A. Riley, Jason P. Stiehl, and Jordan P. Vick
Diverging with other states, the Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that statutory damages of $500 per violation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) are not punitive in nature but remedial and, therefore, are insurable. See Std. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Lay, 2013 IL 114617 (Ill.
Continue Reading Illinois Supreme Court Rules That TCPA Damages Are Remedial, Not Punitive
By Christopher DeGroff, Matthew Gagnon, and Reema Kapur
Will the Seventh Circuit immunize the entire conciliation process from judicial review? It will if the EEOC has its way.
The EEOC is pressing its view that the courts do not have any authority to review how it conducts the conciliation process. It has made this argument in two recent
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Jennifer A. Riley
On May 17, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rendered its opinion in EEOC v. Memphis Health Center, Inc., Nos. 11-6426/27 (6th Cir. May 17, 2013), and held that a prevailing ADEA defendant can recover its attorneys’ fees against the EEOC under the Equal Access to
By Courtney Bohl and Laura Maechtlen
On May 15, 2013, the EEOC issued four revised publications related to protections against disability discrimination. The revisions address changes to the definition of disability made by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (“ADAAA”), which took effect on January 1, 2009. The ADAAA’s expanded definition of disability makes it easier for the EEOC and
By Rebecca Bromet, Christopher DeGroff and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.
On May 10, 2013, the EEOC released its Quality Control Plan (“QCP”) draft principles. In an accompanying press release, the EEOC said that the “[Quality Control Plan] will revise criteria to measure the quality of agency investigations and conciliations throughout the nation.”
If the Plan is a
By Jennifer A. Riley and Jason P. Stiehl
In a much-anticipated decision involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), the Eighth Circuit in Nack v. Walburg, Case No. 11-1460 (8th Cir. May 21, 2012), reversed a grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant and remanded the proceeding, along the way questioning, but not ruling upon, the
Continue Reading Eighth Circuit Raises Specter Of Constitutionality Issues In TCPA Class Actions
By Christopher DeGroff, Reema Kapur, and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.
We previously reported that the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) secured a verdict of $240 million in its lawsuit against Hill Country Farms last week. Read our previous blog post here.
The EEOC trumpeted the verdict in a post-trial press release, but did not
