After a couple weeks of near silence, the Seventh Circuit returned in force issuing eight opinions. However, the court seemed to be suffering from a tad bit of a hangover from its lull, resulting in two of the decisions requiring an order correcting errors. That said,...
Class Actions
Seventh Circuit: Posner Explains Notice Requirements & Utility of Cy Pres Decrees in Small Class Actions
After a double dose two weeks ago and last week off, the Hoosier Litigation Blog returns this week with a case that your author has called the perfect Hoosier Litigation Blog post case. It is a case authored by influential Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner that...
7th Circuit Again Certifies Butler v. Sears, Roebuck, & Co. Class
On Thursday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision in Butler v. Sears, Roebuck, & Co. (Butler II). The court once more certified the two classes despite remand from the Supreme Court of the United States after a grant, vacate, and remand...
Seventh Circuit Explains Rationale of Class Action Attorneys’ Fees
This week, Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook addressed the objections of a member of a settlement class who objected to the attorneys’ fee award. In rejecting the objector’s position and affirming the class action settlement, Chief Judge Easterbrook...
Seventh Circuit Certifies ERISA Breach of Fiduciary Duty Class in Defined-Contribution Plan
This week the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit handed down a decision reversing a trial court’s denial of class certification for breach of fiduciary duty under Sections 409 and 502 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in the...
6th Circuit Reaffirms Class Certification in Whirlpool II
For those who are regular readers of the Hoosier Litigation Blog, you are likely familiar with my prior post Is the Supreme Court Needlessly Using Comcast Corp. v. Behrend to Vacate Certified Classes? In that post I discussed the Supreme Court of the United States’...
Is the Supreme Court Needlessly Using Comcast Corp. v. Behrend to Vacate Certified Classes?
Our loyal readers were probably wondering why I did not provide a post last week. I apologize. I had hoped to be able to complete a post prior to departing for a conference on Thursday afternoon. Alas, the week got away from me. In consideration of our loyal readers...
Class Action Fairness Act: Amount in Controversy after Knowles
In 2005 the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) was enacted, thereby creating an avenue for class actions arising in state courts to be drawn into federal courts. However, CAFA does not authorize federal jurisdiction over each and every class action case. The...
Lessons from Thomas v. UBS AG (7th Cir. 2013): Multistate Class Actions & Applicable Law in Federal Diversity
On February 7, 2013 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a scathing, but informative, decision affirming the dismissal of a putative class action. The case, Thomas v. UBS AG, sought to seek redress on a class wide basis for injuries sustained by the...
Questionable Actions of Class Counsel Did Not Merit Decertification in Class Action
While many courts across the country were relatively quiet this week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appealsprovided a very valuable decision in helping to understand the mechanism of class actions. The basic issue that arose in Reliable Money Order, Inc. v. McKnight...