Class Action

Labor Law Class Action Lawsuits Regain Dominance Among Weekly Class Action Lawsuits Filed In California State And Federal Courts In Week Of Heavy Class Action Activity

By Michael J. Hassen

In order to allow class defense attorneys anticipate the types of class actions against which they will have to defend in California, we provide weekly, unofficial summaries of the legal categories for new class action lawsuits filed in the California state and federal courts located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, San Mateo, Oakland/Alameda and Orange County areas. We include only those categories that include 10% or more of the class action filings during the preceding week. This report covers the period from February 13 - 19, 2009, during which time an unusually high number of class actions were filed; in total, 59 new class action lawsuits were initiated in these courts during this reporting period. Class actions alleging employment-related claims generally top the list of new class action filings by a wide margin, and during this reporting period 23 new labor law class action lawsuits were filed, representing a relatively low 39% of the total number of new class actions filed during the past week. Only two other categories satisfied the 10% threshold: there were 12 new class actions alleging violations of California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL), which includes false advertising claims (20%), and there were 11 new class actions alleging violations of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (19%).

Full post as published by Class Action Defense Blog on February 21, 2009 (boomark / email).