Supreme Court

On May 23, 2022, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a party opposing arbitration is not required to demonstrate prejudice to show that the other party has waived its contractual arbitration rights. 

Before today’s decision, nine federal courts of appeals had adopted the rule that a “party can waive its arbitration right by litigating only when its conduct has prejudiced the other side.”  Morgan v. Sundance, 596 U.S. __ (2022).  Two other circuits had held no showing of prejudice was required.

Continue Reading Supreme Court Decision Makes It Easier to Waive Right to Arbitration

Last year, in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S.Ct. 2190 (2021), the Supreme Court confirmed that every class member must have Article III standing to recover damages in a class action.  As we have previously written, the Court’s decision – summed up as “[n]o concrete harm, no standing” – presents major obstacles to plaintiffs asserting class claims based on “bare procedural violation[s]” of statutes.  But Ramirez left unanswered some important questions about class action standing, and we offer some thoughts here on what the answers are likely to be.

Continue Reading A Closer Look: Standing at Class Certification After TransUnion v. Ramirez

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that may make it easier for companies to be found to have waived arbitration requirements in their contracts. Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. gives the Court an opportunity to resolve a circuit split over whether a party can be deemed to have…

Continue Reading Supreme Court to Consider Two Cases That Could Impact Courts’ Enforcement of Arbitration Clauses

The Supreme Court’s decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 2021 WL 2599472 (U.S. June 25, 2021), is one of the most significant class-action decisions from the Supreme Court in recent years. It expands the scope of the Court’s earlier Article III standing decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 578 U.S. 330 (2016) confirming that, to recover damages in a class action, every class member must satisfy the standing requirement of Article III. The Court’s decision will inevitably make it more difficult for plaintiffs to certify a class asserting claims based on “bare violations” of statutes that do not cause concrete harm to putative class members.

Continue Reading Supreme Court Confirms That Every Class Member Must Have Article III Standing to Recover Damages, Creating Additional Obstacles to Class Certification