-
August 05, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania excluded five individuals and a sewer authority from a certified class in a long-running royalty dispute between landowners and a hydraulic fracturing company based on the parties’ agreement reached after the fracking company moved to compel arbitration.
-
August 05, 2026
DENVER — The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and college athletes who filed a putative class complaint over the June 2026 new eligibility rule filed competing emergency motions in a federal court in Colorado after a preliminary injunction was entered and the NCAA filed a notice of appeal; the NCAA seeks to stay the preliminary injunction while the athletes on Aug. 4 moved to enforce the preliminary injunction (Brock Wisne, et al. v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, No. 26-3063, D. Colo.).
-
August 05, 2026
CHICAGO — Finding that no decision in the Wisconsin Supreme Court has addressed whether a plaintiff, “lured by false price comparison advertising into purchasing a product that is worth the purchase price, suffers a pecuniary loss,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel certified a woman’s putative class claims against Kohl’s Corp. and a related entity to the state high court and stayed her appeal of a Wisconsin federal judge’s decision to dismiss her complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
-
August 04, 2026
NEWARK, N.J. — The plaintiffs in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action that is now centered on allegations of self-dealing and prohibited transactions have asked a New Jersey federal court to grant preliminary approval of a settlement with ADP TotalSource Group Inc. and related parties that would include a $48 million common fund and nonmonetary relief.
-
August 04, 2026
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Saying in part that the key provision a retirement plan sponsor invoked “does not authorize an award of attorney’s fees against counsel,” a South Carolina federal judge on Aug. 3 declined to order the plaintiff’s counsel to pay $1,133,428.61 to cover the legal fees and nontaxable costs the sponsor said it incurred in successfully defending itself against an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case focused on recordkeeping fees.
-
August 03, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — Finding that new allegations in a consumer’s third amended complaint resolved previously identified deficiencies, a California federal judge denied Shopify Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action against it for allegedly collecting customer data to create and sell individualized profiles in violation of California privacy laws and the state’s unfair competition law (UCL).
-
August 03, 2026
DENVER — A split 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed the denial of certification of a class of “Natural American Spirit” (NAS) cigarette smokers in 12 states who in a multidistrict litigation accused three tobacco companies of misleadingly labeling NAS cigarettes “natural” and “additive-free” and affirmed the certification of a class of smokers in eight states who were allegedly deceived by the label on NAS-brand menthol cigarettes, while a dissenting judge said the consumers did not have sufficient proof of their claims.
-
August 03, 2026
BUTTE, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana denied without prejudice the third round of dismissal motions filed by companies accused of conspiring to conceal known dangers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in protective gear for firefighters in a second amended putative class complaint by various municipalities across the United States.
-
July 31, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Artificial intelligence could facilitate the type of coordinated pricing and collusion resulting in reduced competition, and a proposed class plausibly alleges that casinos shared otherwise nonpublic information about hotel room pricing through such a program and acted in a way they likely would not have otherwise, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in reversing dismissal of the putative class action.
-
July 31, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Citing a failure “to rigorously analyze whether Rule 23’s typicality and adequate representation requirements were satisfied,” the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 30 issued an unpublished disposition vacating class certification and remanding “for proceedings consistent with this disposition” in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over retirement plan fees and funds.
-
July 31, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Applying Platt v. Sodexo, S.A. in a July 30 ruling that one panel member dissented from for two reasons, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed that a nonseverable arbitration provision is unenforceable because it contains a class, collective and representative action waiver that prevents effective vindication of retirement plan participants’ substantive right under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
-
July 31, 2026
CINCINNATI — More than 190 class members who opted into the personal injury payment portion of a settlement reached in a case over a chemical release that occurred after a train derailed in Ohio in February 2023 filed an appellant brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that while the $600 million settlement doesn’t need to be reweighed, the trial court committed six legal errors when it denied their motions for relief from the personal injury payment releases after they discovered what they say is new evidence of fraud and misconduct by class counsel.
-
July 30, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied class certification to two web users who sought to represent three proposed classes in a consolidated class action lawsuit against an advertiser, holding that the web users failed to establish that their claims were typical across two of the classes, failed to satisfy the predominance requirement and suffered from Article III standing issues.
-
July 30, 2026
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal of investors’ putative securities fraud class action against a virtual health care service provider and certain of its executives regarding alleged misstatements they made after the company’s $18.5 billion merger with another health care company, finding that the investors had not adequately alleged scienter.
-
July 30, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied Delta Air Lines Inc.’s motion to strike a flier’s alleged “sham” declaration after finding that contradictions in the flier’s deposition testimony regarding when she saw the airline’s allegedly misleading advertisements describing itself as “carbon-neutral” based on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments were not proven to be a “sham” instead of “an honest mistake.”
-
July 30, 2026
DALLAS — Retirement plan participants opposed dismissal of their amended class action complaint in a Texas federal court brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) against retirement plan fiduciaries, arguing that their revised claims properly allege imprudent retention of the Prudential Guaranteed Income Fund (Prudential GIF), excessive recordkeeping and administrative fees and derivative monitoring failures by adding detailed allegations that cure deficiencies identified in the court’s prior dismissal ruling.
-
July 30, 2026
A wave of putative class lawsuits that started in late 2024 continues to grow, with at least seven new Employee Retirement Income Security Act complaints challenging health plan tobacco surcharges filed from May through late July, plus one amended consolidated complaint.
-
July 30, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied rehearing and rehearing en banc after vacating for a second time a $3.7 million fee award for class counsel that is part of a class settlement valued at $27 million in a lawsuit alleging that BMW of North America LLC knowingly manufactured vehicles equipped with defective engines.
-
July 30, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California consumer who filed a putative class complaint against a protein seed and powder manufacturer over the products’ protein claims on Amazon.com “plausibly alleged that the Amazon listings do constitute labeling” and that the manufacturer “had knowledge of or control over them,” but did not show that the listings violate the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act’s (FDCA) labeling regulations, a federal judge in that state ruled, granting the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss.
-
July 29, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal, finding that an investor’s securities fraud class action against a solar energy company, certain former executives and controlling entities alleging misleading statements about product defects failed to allege falsity.
-
July 29, 2026
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York denied a motion in a putative class complaint by Yemenis for an emergency administrative stay of the termination of the temporary protected status (TPS) for Yemen, which was first designated in 2015.
-
July 29, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — In an insured’s dispute with his lender over its alleged unpaid interest in a hurricane coverage dispute involving a now-insolvent insurer, the lender filed a reply brief in Louisiana federal court in further support of its renewed motion to dismiss and request for reconsideration of a previous ruling, asserting that the insured lacks standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
-
July 29, 2026
To date, defendants have fully prevailed in roughly one of every four rulings resolving dismissal motions in a wave of lawsuits challenging health plan tobacco surcharges, but that ratio includes a recent two-day stretch in which federal judges in New Jersey and Minnesota dismissed putative class cases against Campbell Soup Co. and Target Corp. and a federal judge in Texas partly dismissed a putative class case against United Surgical Partners International Inc.
-
July 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 27 granted a stay of mandate pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal government parties in a class case challenging a January 2025 presidential proclamation that limited asylum and withholding of removal applications.
-
July 28, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Five days after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a joint motion to dismiss an appeal filed by R.C. Bigelow Inc. following a jury verdict in favor of a class of consumers in a case about tea labeling, the consumers and tea company on July 27 filed a joint notice of settlement in the trial court.