Class Action

Third Week Of "Normal" Class Action Filings Finds Drop In Labor Law Class Actions Though They Again Claim Top Spot Among Weekly Class Actions 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 time frame. In past years, the number of new class actions filed in these California state and federal courts generally fell within the range of 40-50, but throughout most of this year, that number has been significantly higher. This report covers the time period from May 27 - June 2, 2011, during which time 42 new class actions were filed in these courts. This represents the third straight week in which the number of new class actions filed in these California courts was much more in line with the total number of class actions filed in past years. Only 16 of these 42 class actions, however, involved employment-related claims, representing a relatively low 38% of the total number of new class actions filed. (As regular readers of this blog know, in past years labor law class actions routinely accounted for more than half of the number of new class actions filed each week.) The only other categories to break the 10% threshold involved class actions alleging violations of California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL), which includes false advertising claims, with 9 new filings, representing 21% of the total number of new class actions filed this past week, and class actions alleging violations of federal securities laws, with 5 new filings, representing 12% of the total number of new class actions filed.

Full post as published by Class Action Defense Blog on June 04, 2011 (boomark / email).