In Laffitte v. Robert Half International, Inc., No. BC321317, ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (Oct. 29, 2014; pub. ord. Nov. 21, 2014), the California Court of Appeal affirmed a $19,000,000 settlement that included an attorneys’ fee award of one-third the settlement amount.  Mark Lafitte filed a wage and hour class action suit against Robert Half International alleging violations of the Labor and Business and Professions Codes.  The parties settled, and the terms provided that Robert Half would pay a gross settlement amount of $19,000,000, of which class counsel’s attorneys’ fees would be no more than 6,333,333.33.  Additionally, the proposed settlement included a “clear sailing” provision assuring that Robert Half would not oppose the court’s fee award if the amount was less than or equal to the specified amount.
Continue Reading Clear Sailing Ahead For Class Counsel in California Settlement

In the past four years, droves of call recording class actions have been filed in state and federal courts across California.  The gist of each is that a company violates the law when its customer service department records calls with its customers without first providing notice that the calls may be recorded.  In a recent published decision, the California Court of Appeal may have sounded the death knell for these class actions.  The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of a class certification motion, holding that individualized issues predominated.
Continue Reading Are Call Recording Class Actions Doomed?

In Rea v. Michaels Stores, No. 14-55008, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 2928 (9th Cir. Feb. 18, 2014), the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s order remanding a wage-and-hour class complaint to state court, ruling that the defendant employer’s removal of the case to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) was proper.  The Ninth Circuit held that a defendant’s removal options are not limited to the two 30-day periods specified in the federal removal statutes.
Continue Reading When 30 Days Just Isn’t Enough: The Ninth Circuit Rules that Defendants’ Right to Remove May Not be Limited to 30 Days

In Concepcion v. Amscan Holdings, Inc. et al., — Cal.Rptr.3d —-, 2014 WL 595822 (Cal.App. 2 Dist. Feb. 18, 2014) the California Court of Appeal rejected class counsel’s fee award where class counsel’s billing records were provided to the trial court for review, but were not provided to the defendant’s counsel.
Continue Reading Everyone Gets To See The Evidence: The California Court Of Appeal Rejects an Attorneys’ Fee Award Based On The Trial Court’s In Camera Review Of Class Counsel’s Billing Records

In Murray v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., No. C 09-5744, 2014 WL 563264 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 12, 2014), the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied a motion for class certification that was practically identical to a motion brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that was initially granted, but subsequently reversed by the Seventh Circuit.  In doing so, the court considered the relative weight and “comity” of identical class actions filed in other states, finding that they were entitled to “respect” but not “preclusive effect.”  Nonetheless, the court denied certification on the same grounds, finding a complete lack of commonality among the proposed class’ claims.
Continue Reading Comity and Commonality: A Tale of Two Identical Class Actions Brought By Forum-Shopping Plaintiffs’ Counsel

On August 13, 2012, another California Court of Appeal recognized that Gentry v. Superior Court, 42 Cal.4th 443 (2007) has been “discredited” by the U.S. Supreme Court’s expansive landmark decision in AT&T Mobility, Inc. v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740 (2011) holding the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws refusing to enforce arbitration agreements with class action waivers. See Truly Nolen of America v. Superior Court, D060519, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 871 (2012). Gentry, a pre-Concepcion opinion, established a rule effectively invalidating most class action waivers contained in arbitration provisions based on certain state statutory rights. The Truly Nolen decision expressly joined the emerging “majority view” in recognizing that the FAA preempts Gentry, “Based on Concepcion’s expansive language and its clear mandate that arbitration agreements must be enforced according to their terms despite a state’s policy reasons to the contrary.”
Continue Reading Another California Court of Appeal Rules That Concepcion Discredits Gentry’s Rule Invalidating Most Class Action Waivers In Arbitration Provisions