The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that defendants facing a Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit couldn't escape a class action by making a settlement offer to individual plaintiffs, a decision that has wide ramifications for all class actions. Here, attorneys tell Law360 why the decision is momentous...
M.C. Sungaila, Haynes and Boone LLP: "Campbell-Ewald may have taken an arrow out of the quiver for class action defendants, but it has not thoroughly disarmed them. As Chief Justice Roberts notes in his dissent: 'The good news is that this case is limited to its facts. The majority holds that an offer of complete relief is insufficient to moot a case. The majority does not say that payment of complete relief leads to the same result.' In other words, echoing a point Justice Breyer focused on at oral argument, the case might have come out differently if the defendant had deposited the offered amount with the district court in a dedicated account. A defendant who does that may well end up presenting that next incremental issue in this area to the Supreme Court."
Excerpted from Law360. To read the full article, click here (subscription required).