Overview
Carlton Fields’ class action practice team of more than 70 lawyers handles complex class actions throughout the country, at every state and federal court level, including the U.S. Supreme Court. We have defended hundreds of high-exposure class actions across a range of substantive areas, including financial services, insurance, consumer fraud, health care, real estate, antitrust, securities, product liability, toxic tort, telecommunications, tax, construction, and employment. We are familiar with virtually every issue class actions present, including the standards for class certification and strategies for defeating it, challenges to standing, jurisdiction and venue, removal, dismissal, summary judgment, arbitration, settlement administration, MDL proceedings, and joinder of parties. Our lawyers handled 87 active class action matters throughout 2021 and 2022, of which 36 were opened during this time frame.
Our firm also has a deep understanding of the legal doctrines and laws that have particular impact on the financial services and insurance industries, including the filed-rate and form doctrines, primary jurisdiction, the McCarran-Ferguson Act, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act. Additionally, we regularly litigate removal and settlement issues related to the Class Action Fairness Act.
Early Case Assessment
The early evaluation of class action litigation is critical to efficient case planning as well as risk management. Our class action attorneys work closely with our clients to assess not only the strengths and weaknesses of the case but also to craft a litigation plan to reduce exposure and identify a set of shared objectives.
Tailored Strategies
For some clients, a vigorous challenge to class certification is critical. Others prefer strategic settlement. Still others wish us to try their cases and, if necessary, pursue appeals. In each situation, we help clients achieve their business objectives and litigation goals.
Case Management
We are frequently retained to manage or coordinate a client’s overall institutional response to multiple jurisdiction, parallel class actions, or multidistrict litigation. The skills of our class action team are supplemented by our firsthand knowledge of the risks peculiar to various jurisdictions and our significant experience in selecting and teaming with local trial counsel as appropriate.
Firmwide Resources
Our national class action defense practice team works closely with firm colleagues who focus on particular issues that arise in class action lawsuit defense. For example, they collaborate with our e-discovery team to formulate cutting-edge strategies that address the growing challenges raised by electronically stored information. They also receive crucial support from the firm’s appellate lawyers, who work alongside them before and during trial to develop the best possible record and, if necessary, to prevail on appeal.
Thought Leadership
- The firm conducts and publishes an annual national Class Action Survey, which details best practices for reducing class action costs and managing their risks. The survey draws on more than 300 in-depth interviews each year with general counsel and senior legal officers at leading companies of every size.
- Our class action lawyers contribute frequent posts to our blog, Classified, which features case summaries and links to class action-related news.
- We write and speak often on class action defense issues and trends, and have presented to clients and counsel across North America.