The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear two important cases next year involving important issues for class action lawyers and the clients they serve.
In Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela, the Supreme Court will decide “whether the Federal Arbitration Act forecloses a state-law interpretation of an arbitration agreement that would authorize class arbitration
In 2015, the Rule 23 Subcommittee to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules floated the idea of amending Rule 23 to eliminate the predominance requirement for class certification in the settlement context. The suggestions included amendments to that effect within Rule 23(b)(3) itself, or alternatively creating a new Rule 23(b)(4) providing for settlement class certification:
Class actions have dual natures. They start out as only individual cases, but they can become massive, collective cases where the rights of absent parties are adjudicated all at once. In most respects, class certification provides the clearest dividing line between when a case is just a case and when it is a full-blown class