Among the features of the U.S. legal system that foreign observers often single out for concern is the availability of class action litigation procedures. The fact is, however, that many countries around the world have adopted some form of class action procedure, at least for consumer-oriented litigation. According to a recent report, Latin America is
Wal-Mart Decision, Wage & Hour Cases Continue to Roil Employment Practices Litigation Arena
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes continues to agitate the employment practices litigation arena while at the same time both EEOC enforcement activity and wage and hour litigation continue to surge, according to the annual review of workplace litigation by the Seyfarth Shaw law firm. The law firm’s January
Class Actions Around the World
Although the class action lawsuit is most often associated with the litigious legal culture in the United States, the fact is that in recent years class action and other group litigation procedures have been expanding around the world. Forces of globalization and the rise of organized groups of aggrieved claimants have encourage a host of
Class Actions in Australia and Mexico
In this post, I review two recent law firm memos examining the state of class action litigation in Australia and Mexico, respectively. I first review class actions in Australia, and then examine class actions in Mexico below.
AUSTRALIA
Class actions, which have been available as a procedural alternative in Australia since 1992 are “now
Are Securities Class Action Opt-Outs Back?
A couple of years ago, a "worrisome trend" developed in securities class action litigation, in which large institutional investors began routinely opting out of plaintiff class to separately pursue their own individual claims under the securities laws. The settlement of these individual opt out actions in many cases rivaled, in the aggregate, the amount of
A Closer Look at the 2008 Life Sciences Securities Lawsuits
The 2008 securities lawsuit filings were dominated by new lawsuits filed against companies in the financial sector, as has been well-documented elsewhere (refer here). But while lawsuits against financial companies were the most prominent feature of the 2008 securities filings, there were also a significant number of lawsuits filed against companies outside the financial
Section 11 Lawsuits: Coming Soon to a State Court Near You?
Over the last several years, Congress has made several different efforts to concentrate class action litigation in federal court.
For example, in the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA), Congress amended portions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to preempt class actions alleging fraud under