Recent Trends in Class-Action Consumer Finance Litigation - The Consumer Finance Podcast
In an order with important implications for trade secret disputes in federal court, on August 12, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court abused its discretion in striking a plaintiff’s trade...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a district court abused its discretion by striking several of the plaintiff’s trade secrets, concluding that the court improperly relied on Rule 12(f) and failed to...more
In California trade secrets cases, parties almost always fight about the scope of alleged trade secrets because a state statute requires identification of secrets “with reasonable particularity” before discovery. But in...more
When faced with defendants' applications brought before the plaintiff's application to certify a class proceeding, BC courts have often held that there is a presumption that certification will proceed first. In that context,...more
In ruling on a recent motion to strike, a judge in the Eastern District of Texas permitted a damages expert to rely on a damages theory based on defendant’s “avoided costs,” holding that this theory did not run afoul of the...more
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California - Plaintiff Vernon Armstrong alleges he developed lung cancer from asbestos exposure during his Navy service, under claims for negligence, strict liability,...more
Allen v. United States, 2025 WL 35468, No. 24-99-KSM (E.D. Pa. Jan. 3, 2025) - A federal court dismissed a negligence claim against the United States Postal Service (USPS) after the plaintiff failed to timely oppose the...more
In Wings Platinum, LLC v. Westchester Surplus Lines Ins. Co., No. 3:23-CV-2145-D, 2025 WL 391388 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 4, 2025), a federal district court recently held that an engineer with one year and one month of experience...more
Aperçu Dans l’affaire RH20 North America Inc. v. Bergmann, la Cour d’appel de l’Ontario (la « CAO ») a confirmé qu’une requête en radiation de réclamations susceptibles d’être réglées par voie d’arbitrage équivaut à une...more
Overview - In RH20 North America Inc. v. Bergmann, the Ontario Court of Appeal affirmed that a motion to strike arbitrable claims amounts to a waiver of the right to arbitrate and disentitles the moving party to a stay of...more
Discovery (or disclosure) in litigation, which is governed in New York State practice by Article 31 of the CPLR, is the mechanism by which litigants obtain facts and information from other parties and non-parties to support...more
California’s anti-SLAPP statute (Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16) aims to protect defendants from meritless lawsuits designed to chill “protected activity” — i.e., the exercise of rights of petition (litigation) or...more
The Ninth Circuit has granted a rehearing en banc in Martinez v. ZoomInfo Tech., Inc. concerning the appealability of denial of anti-SLAPP motions under the collateral order doctrine. Historically, the Ninth Circuit has...more
On January 18, 2024, the California Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, resolving a dispute among the appellate courts and concluding that Private Attorneys General Act...more
On January 18, 2024, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc., concluding that trial courts do not have inherent authority to strike a PAGA claim on the grounds that it is...more
On January 18, 2024, the California Supreme Court held that trial courts lack inherent authority to strike (dismiss with prejudice) claims under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) on manageability grounds. The...more
On January 18th, the California Supreme Court in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc. ruled that defendants sued under the Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) may no longer strike unmanageable claims. PAGA claims are...more
The California Supreme Court has issued its much-anticipated decision in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc., determining whether Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims can be dismissed as unmanageable. The Court...more
When an amended complaint renders the arguments of a motion to dismiss moot, what effect does it have on the public’s ability to view the parties’ filings on the motion? In Karriker v. Harpoon Holdings, L.P., 2023 NCBC 67,...more
Court: United States District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls Division - From 1923 to 1994, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) transported vermiculite ore containing amphibole asbestos from a...more
A Rhode Island federal district court recently refused to enforce a stand-alone class action waiver in the consumer plaintiff’s automobile lease agreement on the ground that it violates state public policy. The court in...more
In an October 3 decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Ellis III granted a motion to transfer venue of a patent case brought in the EDVA to California under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Monarch Networking Solutions LLC .v Juniper...more
Two recent decisions highlight that the viability of the established business relationship, or EBR, exemption defeating class certification in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case may depend on the defendant company’s...more
In Durkin v. City & County of San Francisco (2023) 90 Cal.App.5th 643, the First District Court of Appeal held that the trial court erred in granting the real party in interest’s special motion to strike under anti-SLAPP...more
Should an attorney always seek to have an opponent's late-by-a-few-minutes filing stricken in order to pursue the timing issue? No, according to Judge R. David Proctor, who recently issued a caustic order in Whitworth v....more