The December 2018 revisions to Rule 23 are relatively minor, and early cases applying the amended rule confirm that no major changes have occurred. The Southern District of Iowa summed up the theme in Swinton v. SquareTrade, Inc.: The amendments are “mostly form over substance” and “largely [a] codif[ication of] existing case law” that
Must the Rule 23 Predominance Requirement Be Satisfied for Purposes of a Class Settlement? The Ninth Circuit Says, “Yes.”
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:
A Look Back at Significant Developments in Class Action Law in 2017
From the standpoint of class action practice, 2017 was as important for what did not happen as for what did. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the 2017 class action scorecard, with a look forward to how the impact of some of those developments may be felt in 2018.
A brave new