Sanctions Imposed on Five Attorneys for Class Settlement Forum Shopping

By Jacqueline Matthews on August 15, 2016 Posted in Injunctions

Five Arkansas attorneys have been formally reprimanded by a federal judge in the Western District of Arkansas after stipulating to dismissal “for the purposes of seeking a more favorable forum and avoiding an adverse decision” in connection with the approval of a class settlement. The court had initially considered harsher injunctive sanctions, including requiring the … Continue Reading

Arkansas Federal Court to Consider Sanctioning Attorneys for Using Federal Jurisdiction as “Bargaining Chip” in Negotiating State-Court Class Settlement

By Andrew Samuels on January 27, 2016 Posted in Class Action Trends, State Class Action Law

In Adams et al. v. United Services Automobile Ass’n et al., W.D. Ark. No. 2:14-cv-02013, Chief District Judge P.K. Holmes III of the Western District of Arkansas will soon decide whether to sanction attorneys who negotiated a class settlement in federal court and then dismissed and refiled in state court, where the case originated, for … Continue Reading

Supreme Court Rejects Efforts to Avoid CAFA Jurisdiction

By Deborah Renner on March 20, 2013 Posted in Class Action Fairness Act, Class Action Trends

Editors’ Note: This post is a joint submission to this blog and rennerclassactions.com. In The Standard Fire Insurance Co.v. Knowles, No. 11-1450, a unanimous decision yesterday written by Justice Breyer, the Supreme Court held that a plaintiff cannot stipulate to an amount of damages for a putative class in order to avoid federal jurisdiction under … Continue Reading