Has Implications For Fees, Given Statute And Equitable Principles Allowing For Fee Recovery.
An article by Daniel S. Wittenberg, “Class Action Spending Reaches 10-Year High” in the Summer 2019 edition of the ABA’s Litigation News, provides some interesting insights into the class action cases which are prevalent and frequently expose defendants to attorney’s fees/costs exposure in 2018-2019:
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- Labor/employment class action This topped the list. For the first time in 15 years, plaintiffs posted a record high certification rate in wage/hour cases. The #MeToo movement gained traction in this area, with an eight percent increase in the number of sexual harassment filings in 2018.
- Securities litigation class actions. Securities class action filings reached their highest level since the dot-com. crash of 2000.
- Life science securities class actions. In 2018, roughly one out of every five securities fraud class actions suits were brought against a life sciences company.
- Food and beverage class actions. These class action cases, in 2018, reached their highest levels since 2015. The big venue—California, of course, with almost half of the cases filed. False labeling was the number one claim subject matter in this area as far as filings.
- Data breach privacy and security class actions. This might be the next surge of class actions, notwithstanding a lot of standing and injury obstacles. In California, the enactment of the Consumer Privacy Act, going into effect in 2020, might augment this possible future surge in class actions in the “Golden State.”
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