Class Action

Surge In Bandwagon Product Defect Class Actions Against Toyota Insufficient To Unseat Employment-Related Class Actions From Top Spot Among Weekly Class Action Lawsuits Filed In California State And Federal Courts

By Michael J. Hassen

As a resource to 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 February 5 - 11, 2010, during which time 50 new class action cases were filed in these California state and federal courts. While labor law class actions generally top this list by a wide margin and often account for more than half of the total number of new class action lawsuits filed during any particular week, this past week saw a flood of product defect class actions against Toyota. But even with the Toyota class actions, employment-related class action lawsuits maintained their grip on the top spot. During this reporting period, 24 new labor law class actions were filed, representing 48% of the total number of new class actions filed. The only other categories to break the 10% threshold involved class actions against Toyota for product defects, with 9 new class actions (16% of the new class actions filed during the reporting period), and class actions alleging violations of California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL), which includes false advertising claims, with 8 new class action lawsuits (16% of the new class actions filed during the reporting period).

Full post as published by Class Action Defense Blog on February 13, 2010 (boomark / email).