Consumer Class Actions and Mass Torts : Class Action Lawyer & Attorney : J. Russell Jackson : Skadden Law Firm : Complex Class Actions : Consumer Class Actions & Mass Torts Law Blog

This blog is designed to identify and discuss recent trends in the pleading and defense of consumer class actions and mass torts. Although it is clearly written from the defense perspective, it’s not intended to exclude the voices of plaintiffs’ counsel or others with an interest in the subject. Your posts on the topics covered herein are eagerly solicited.

Consumer class action and mass tort practice is constantly evolving. For plaintiffs, the key to class certification is to find ways to litigate hundreds or thousands of claims in an aggregated trial without creating individual issues that would have to be tried separately for each class member. This affects how plaintiffs define their classes, as well as the theories of recovery that they plead. For defendants, the key to defeating class certification is to demonstrate how the elements of the substantive causes of action – or the defenses thereto – require litigating issues individually for each class member, which would make a classwide trial unmanageable.

Because the theories and defenses pled have such a strong impact on the class certification issue, this blog does not limit itself to class certification decisions. Rather, it delves into the substantive causes of action that have been pled, and the arguments both sides make about them. The key decision points in a class action often are: (1) whether to remove the case to federal court, (2) selecting venue and/or creating a multidistrict litigation (“MDL”), (3) the motion to dismiss, (4) the motion for summary judgment, (5) sometimes, the accompanying motion to exclude expert testimony, and (6) the class certification motion. (Very few classes that are actually certified eventually proceed to trial because the aggregated risk of loss to the defendant is usually too great, and so the defendant often settles.) You will encounter in this blog decisions and articles on each of these topics, and many more. Hopefully it also will give you insight into the practical reasons why each side is making his arguments, as well.