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October 22, 2026
SEATTLE — A day after conducting a fairness hearing in a case that was among the many challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, a Washington federal judge on Oct. 21 issued an order granting final approval of a settlement with an estimated value of $42,724,532 and approving the requested awards of $5,880,539 for attorney fees, $24,461 for litigation costs and $5,000 as a service award to the named plaintiff.
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October 22, 2026
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A data privacy putative class action survived a motion to dismiss after a Florida federal judge found that the alleged publication of the wife’s personal information on the dark web and her husband’s efforts to mitigate the resulting risk of identity theft sufficiently allege injury.
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October 22, 2026
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a divided decision enabled a putative class action lawsuit to proceed against nine Michigan corrections officials but ruled that five others were entitled to immunity on certain claims in a lawsuit alleging that they had knowledge of but failed to remediate mold at a women’s prison, which has allegedly sickened multiple inmates.
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October 21, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 21 denied an application to stay filed by President Donald J. Trump and other federal government parties seeking to halt a preliminary injunction in a provisionally certified class case that enjoins the enforcement of the federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP’s) February 2026 near-total ban on gender-affirming care.
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October 21, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals did not create any conflict with other circuits when it ruled in a putative class case that the termination of grants by President Donald J. Trump and other government officials that were based on the perceived viewpoint of the research likely violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, researchers argue in their brief opposing the government parties’ petition seeking review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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October 21, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied Chicago vehicle owners’ petition seeking review in their putative class case alleging that Chicago’s vehicle forfeiture scheme violates the U.S. Constitution’s takings clause; however, Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a statement in which Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined to “encourage courts considering this issue to take care that due deference to state police powers does not eclipse constitutional rights.”
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October 21, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The parties in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit seeking millions in severance benefits for a putative class of former Twitter Inc. employees have reached an unspecified settlement in principle, they told a California federal court in a joint filing.
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October 20, 2026
SEATTLE — The owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shop restaurants appealed a Washington federal court’s dismissal of its breach of contract lawsuit seeking employment practices liability coverage for an underlying putative class action alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, arguing to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the lower court erred by failing to apply the “liberal-construction principles” that govern coverage disputes under Washington law and misapplied Washington law when it analyzed the insurance policy and underlying allegations.
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October 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 19 asked retirees to respond to three certiorari petitions filed over two similar rulings that revived putative class suits on the grounds that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires the use of “reasonable” actuarial assumptions when calculating certain pension benefits.
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October 20, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a California federal judge’s ruling certifying three classes of drivers suing Tesla Inc. and its affiliates for unfairly marketing cars as having “self-driving” technology in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, writing that the lower court “erred by inferring” that an entire class was exposed to allegedly deceptive statements by Tesla regarding the ability of hardware in its cars to provide full self-driving (FSD).
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October 19, 2026
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Concluding that health plan participants are entitled to summary judgment on all six claims, a Missouri federal judge on Oct. 16 ordered damages briefing in the class action that is part of a wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges; he noted that the plaintiffs seek a total of $47,808,402.09 on five claims and $37,647,290.50 on the other claim and that the defendant argues that the second amount would constitute improper duplicative damages.
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October 19, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge issued the public version of a previously sealed ruling denying a plaintiff’s motion to certify a statewide class allegedly deceived into purchasing nutritional drinks based on their health claims in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, writing that the plaintiff failed to show that her damages model could reliably calculate classwide damages and partly excluding consideration of her damages experts after finding them “unreliable.”
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October 19, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge adopted as final a tentative ruling and granted a plaintiff’s motion to certify a statewide class accusing a contact lens manufacturer of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly sending customers contact lenses that do not satisfy federal requirements for contact lens prescription fulfillment and denied a defense motion to exclude the plaintiff’s expert on materiality and damages.
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October 16, 2026
SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed an Idaho federal judge’s decision to dismiss a putative class action brought by individuals whose personal information was disclosed by a health insurance administration company to unauthorized parties after determining that the unauthorized disclosure of protected health information is a concrete injury.
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October 16, 2026
DETROIT — A Michigan bank agreed to pay $31.5 million — including $10.5 million in attorney fees, $311,690.80 in litigation costs and monetary relief and credit monitoring for class members — in a class action settlement after the bank experienced two cyberattacks resulting in data breaches impacting more than 2.18 million employees and customers whose data was compromised.
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October 15, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the U.S. Supreme Court’s prior denial of certiorari in a putative class suit alleging wrongful termination related to former employees’ refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a similar petition for certiorari by the employees in their individual capacities on Oct. 14 was distributed for conference; in the instant suit, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of the employees’ suit.
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October 15, 2026
SEATTLE — Claims alleging breach of contract, bad faith and violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act (CPA) will proceed in a putative class action suit stemming from a life insurer’s monthly charges because the policyholder has alleged sufficient facts to support the claims at this stage of the litigation, a Washington federal judge said in denying the life insurer’s motion to dismiss.
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October 15, 2026
ATLANTA — An Alabama sheriff and others accused in a class complaint of bail practices that unconstitutionally discriminate against indigent individuals filed a motion for an extension to seek rehearing after the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the case can’t be mooted simply by issuing “a new, more permissive bail policy.”
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October 15, 2026
MIAMI — A Florida federal judge issued an order setting a schedule for bellwether jury trials in a mass action brought by current and former servicemembers and their family members against several military housing companies who owned, operated and managed their rental housing at Naval Air Station Key West (NAS Key West) and are accused of concealing toxic mold, asbestos and other conditions at the properties that caused the plaintiffs to suffer various health consequences and emotional distress.
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October 15, 2026
ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied in a three-sentence order a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a settlement objector after the appellate panel in September in a single opinion rejected four appeals seeking to set aside more than $110 million in settlements that were part of more than $1 billion collected for home sellers who accused National Association of Realtors (NAR) and real estate franchises of conspiring to artificially inflate residential real estate commission costs.
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October 15, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Consumers seeking to represent a class in a case challenging animal testing claims on John Paul Mitchell Systems (JPMS) hair product labels presented an insufficient proposed classwide damages model, a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating a class certification order and remanding for further proceedings.
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October 14, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Video Privacy Protection Act’s (VPPA) reach is not limited to video-related services, the attorney representing a California man who brought a putative class complaint regarding data sharing against Paramount Global under the VPPA argued Oct. 14 before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case debating the meaning of “consumer” under the act.
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October 14, 2026
NEW ALBANY, Ind. — A federal judge in Indiana on Oct. 13 granted a motion by four female student-athletes for an emergency preliminary injunction in their putative class action halting Hanover College’s plans to eliminate its women’s swim team; the college’s motion to dismiss that was filed in the meantime remains pending.
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October 14, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on Oct. 13 granted a motion for final approval of a $68 million settlement resolving class claims against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. (collectively Google) for allegedly eavesdropping on Google Assistant (GA) users in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and privacy laws and granted the plaintiffs’ motion for more than $22 million in attorney fees but reduced the named plaintiffs’ service awards.
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October 14, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In pleadings filed one day apart, the federal government and a provisionally certified class of prisoners, who were granted a preliminary injunction that enjoins the enforcement of the federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) February 2026 near-total ban on gender-affirming care, debate a stay the government seeks from the U.S. Supreme Court.