Class Action

Today, substantial risks are posed by class actions—cases involving thousands, sometimes millions of claimants. Individual claims that might look small can pose substantial or even “bet the company” risks if they are aggregated in a certified class. Wildman Harrold’s Class Action Practice handles class issues that often pose industry-wide challenges. Our attorneys work at the cutting edge of class action law and have the substantive experience to provide effective and creative defenses. We have successfully litigated class and merits issues, and taken certified class actions to trial when necessary, in state and federal courts across the country. Many of these venues have been characterized as “magnet jurisdictions.” We work with our clients to develop aggressive, proactive strategies for attacking and defeating certification theories, frequently through use of scientific, economic, marketing, and other expert testimony. Our lawyers have defended class actions in such substantive areas as antitrust, RICO, product liability, environmental, mass torts, consumer protection, false marketing, employment, insurance, and securities and financial services. Recent experience includes the following:

• Set the strategy and successfully led the industry-wide defense in a series of 15 lawsuits, in which plaintiffs sought certification of nationwide or statewide classes under federal and state antitrust, deceptive trade practices, fraud, and contract theories
• Defeated a nationwide antitrust lawsuit involving a class of 200,000 medical residents, alleging Sherman Act price-fixing conspiracy
• Successfully defended high profile class action claims of age and gender discrimination, defeating class certification and prevailing on summary judgment to dismiss the case
• Defended a trade association from claims of misrepresentation based on advertisements as well as product defect and failure to warn claims; obtained dismissal of class action complaints in the five jurisdictions where cases were filed
• Won victories for the treated wood industry in the defeat of class certification, dismissal of suits by summary judgment, and favorable jury verdicts in litigation over the marketing, promotion, and safety of CCA treated wood in state and federal courts across the country
• Defeated a putative class action involving cell phone users challenging a wireless telecommunications service provider on consumer fraud, false marketing, breach of contract, and breach of warranty theories
• Obtained a victory for our client when the Fifth Circuit reversed a district court order that had certified a nationwide class in a RICO fraud case naming dozens of insurance companies as defendants
• Obtained summary judgment for medical device manufacturer sued in Madison County, Illinois in a nationwide putative class alleging false marketing and consumer fraud; no class was ever certified
• Obtained dismissal of a nationwide consumer fraud and breach of contract class action in Madison County, Illinois on behalf of an insurer participating in a preferred provider organization; no class was ever certified
• Represented a long-term client, a member of a nationwide class of merchants, in a suit against a major credit card company alleging violations of federal antitrust laws; recommended that our client opt out after receiving the initial settlement proposal, resulting in a cash settlement nearly ten times the proposed class portion