Legal Publications and Articles

Tim Sensing, Who’s On First?: The United States Supreme Court Takes A Swing At Interpreting The Ever-Elusive Language Of The § 1367 Supplemental Jurisdiction Statute In Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Servs. Inc., 26 Miss. C. L. Rev. 321 (2007)

Just in time to get CAFA Law Blog readers warmed up for the Spring Training

Steven Puiszis’ Developing Trends With the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 115 may be your cure.

Got plenty of time? Jonesing for another cafa-themed law review article thick enough to use for a cutting board?   Then look no further than Steven Puiszis: Developing Trends With the Class Action Fairness

Class, we are delighted to bring you another guest post.  Professor Elizabeth Chamblee Burch of the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama is here to enlighten you on CAFA’s impact on litigation as a public good.  I know many of you are wondering if there is anything good in CAFA at all.  Well, Professor Burch posits the position that the effects of CAFA are bad.

Please give Professor Burch your attention.  Excuse me, I see we have a question.  Yes, Mr. Seymour?  I know that football season is starting, but you cannot ask her if she is an Alabama or an Auburn fan.  However, before agreeing to allow her to appear as one of our guest columnists, we did verify that she is not a supporter of Nick Saban’s view on the Class Action Fairness Act. Mr. Wilbourn, you can put your hand down.  I am not going to even call on you.

Now, please give your attention to Professor Burch.Continue Reading Guest Post: CAFA, You Are A Bad, Bad Boy!

Horan, David, Appealing Remand Orders under the Class Action Fairness Act, 8 J. App. Prac & Process 281 (2006).

Hello, federal court lover. So you opposed remand, lost, and your case has been remanded to the dreaded ninth circle otherwise known as state court.Continue Reading “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” Be Damned — CAFA Provides Reprieve From Remand Orders

Think of it as Car Talk for CAFA.  Saturday is not complete without a dose of Tom and Ray Magliozzi, a/k/a Click and Clack, on NPR and their famous Puzzler.  Well, we have a CAFA Puzzler for you.  One of our more brilliant readers has posed a question to us.  However, we thought it might be more fun to pose the question to our smart readers than simply provide the answer.  So, if you know the answer to the question below, please send it to us by using the comment button, and we will post your answers (just let us know if you want us to use your name or not). 

Continue Reading CAFA Lawblog Puzzler!

Walker, Laurens, The Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights: A Policy and Political Mistake, 58 Hastings L.J. 849 (April, 2007).

In an essay entitled: The Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights: A Policy and Political Mistake, Laurens Walker of the Hastings Law Journal is the first (that we know of) to examine the policy and political implications of the Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights in CAFA. Walker, argues that Section three of the Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights (“Bill of Rights”) encourages public participation in class action settlements and will likely prove a policy and political mistake.Continue Reading The Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights in CAFA is a Mistake, Says This Law Review Article

Coordinating Related Banking Cases on an Intra-State Basis, 124 Banking L.J. 637 (July, 2007)

Our story begins with a lone warrior, schooled in the ancient arts, clutching her weapon, passing through enormous oak doors. Quietly, openly and deliberately our hero walks through the narrow aisle leading from the doorway. The warrior’s eyes bounce left, then right, alternating smoothly yet sharply with each step.   The warrior stops as the aisle ends and the passage opens to a spacious square area, no ornate décor, finely polished wooden floors. In short order, our hero is surrounded by multiple attackers rather than facing her opponent one-on-one. Is it the Bride coming to exact her revenge on the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_bride_%28kill_bill%29.JPG

Is she armed with her katana fashioned by the legendary sword-smith Hattori Hanz?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SW-320E-4.jpg

Are the surrounding attackers the Crazy 88 gang ordered to attack by Deadly Viper O-Ren Ishii? Well, not so much.Continue Reading The Banking Law Journal has Provided the Guidance; Don’t Get Killed by the Bill Defending Multiple Related Proceedings Pending in State Court.

Adrogué, Sophia, Recent Developments In Fifth Circuit Business Torts Jurisprudence, 39 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 587 (2007).

In her annual review of the Fifth Circuit’s business tort opinions, Houston, Texas attorney Sophia Androgué features a pair of 2006 CAFA cases surely to be familiar to our faithful readers: Patterson v. Dean Morris, LLP (dealing with commencement and scope of appellate review of remand orders under CAFA) and Braud v. Transport Service Company of Illinois (another commencement opinion). In case you missed our posts (or just want to read more about the how the judges of the Fifth Circuit are dealing with CAFA issues), take a peek at Ms. Androgué’s article in the Spring 2007 issue of the Texas Tech Law Review. (Editors’ Note: for a scholarly analysis of these two cases worthy of a law review see the CAFA Law Blog analysis of Patterson posted on June 5, 2006, and the CAFA Law Blog analysis of Braud posted on May 24, 2006).Continue Reading Texas Tech Law Review Survey of Fifth Circuit Business Tort Cases Includes Patterson and Braud decisions

(Editors’ suggestion—to maximize your reading pleasure, try reading the following post in your best Ben Stein impersonation, circa “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”)

The Federal Reserve Issues Statement On Regulated Financial Institutions' Requirement To Notify Their Federal and State Regulators of Proposed Class Settlements.

The Federal Reserve has issued a letter providing guidance to regulated banking and financial institutions on their duties to provide notice of proposed settlements to their state and local regulators. The notice states that, within 10 days after the filing of a proposed class action settlement agreement with the court, any defendant financial institution covered by the law and supervised by the Federal Reserve should send notice of the proposed settlement to the General Counsel at the responsible Federal Reserve Bank. The notice required to be filed with the Federal Reserve Bank must also be filed with the financial institution’s state bank supervisor, if any.Continue Reading The Federal Reserve Issues Statement On Regulated Financial Institutions’ Requirement To Notify Their Federal and State Regulators of Proposed Class Settlements.