class certification

Class actions will face a new test in the U.S. Supreme Court next year after the justices granted certiorari on two issues:

1) Can workers at an Iowa meatpacking plant rely on statistical sampling to establish liability and damages regarding wages?

2) Can a class be certified when it contains membesr who weren't injured and have no legal right to damages?

Reuters' Alison Frankel says in her analysis that class action lawyers "could be looking back with nostalgia and regret at the good old days when they only had to worry about Wal-Mart v. Dukes and Comcast v. Behrend."

Frankel notes that the Supreme Court also has taken up Spokeo v. Robins, presenting "the question of whether Congress can confer constitutional standing on otherwise uninjured class members by providing a private right to recover statutory damages for violations of consumer laws."

The Supreme Court also has taken up Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez, presenting the issue of whether defendants can stop class actions by offering lead plaintiffs a settlement that addresses their full damages.

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a securities fraud class action and weigh the fraud-on-the market theory, The Southeast Texas Record reports. The case could affect the future of class actions, including whether the fraud-on-the-market theory can be used in class actions, the paper also notes.

"The theory assumes that all public information provided by a company is incorporated into its stock price," The Record reports. Halliburton was accused of inflating its stock price by misrepresenting "its asbestos liabilities, overstating its revenues and building up hype about the company’s merger with Dresser Industries," The Record further reports.

The litigation over same-sex marriage equality continues to burgeon in the United States. Most recently, a federal judge certified a class action to challenge Virginia's eight-year-old ban on same-sex marriage. The Associated Press reports that U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski certified the class action Friday. The Virginia Attorney General already said he won't defend the ban in court. The class of couples could be around 15,000, according to the AP.

A federal judge has certified a class action over the treatment of American Indian children in South Dakota's foster care system, the Associated Press reports: "It alleges the state is violating the Indian Child Welfare Act by holding improper hearings after children are removed from homes. It says the hearings are sometimes as short as 60 seconds and do not give parents the opportunity to introduce evidence showing their ability to care for the child or to question the state."

A federal judge has certified a class action over the treatment of American Indian children in South Dakota's foster care system, the Associated Press reports: "It alleges the state is violating the Indian Child Welfare Act by holding improper hearings after children are removed from homes. It says the hearings are sometimes as short as 60 seconds and do not give parents the opportunity to introduce evidence showing their ability to care for the child or to question the state."

The Recorder reports that student athletes have been certified as a class to challenge the National Collegiate Athletic Association's rules that require collegiate athletes to sign away their rights of publicity.  That would include the right to license their names and likenesses for use in videogames and on television. However, the presiding California federal judge did not certify the athletes who were seeking to recover money damages.