Class Action

New Class Actions Alleging Employment-Related Claims Hold On To Top Spot Among Weekly Class Action Lawsuits Filed In California State And Federal Courts But UCL Claims Run Close Second

By Michael J. Hassen

As a resource for California class action defense attorneys, we provide weekly, unofficial summaries of the legal categories for new class action lawsuits filed in California state and federal courts in the 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 relevant timeframe. This report covers the time period from September 18 - 24, 2009, during which time 40 new class action cases were filed in these California courts. Generally, labor law class actions top the list by a wide margin, and a wide variety of categories complete the mix. This past week, however, only three categories accounted for fully 90% of the new class action lawsuits filed in these California courts. Class actions alleging employment-related claims continued to hold the top spot, with 16 new class actions, accounting for 40% of the total number of new class actions filed. But class actions alleging violations of California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL), which includes false advertising claims, ran a close second, with 13 new class actions (33%). The only other category to break the 10% threshold involved class actions alleging violations of federal securities laws, with 7 new class action lawsuits (18% of the new class actions filed during the reporting period). Among them, these three groups accounted for 36 of the 40 new class actions filed during this past week.

Full post as published by Class Action Defense Blog on September 26, 2009 (boomark / email).