MVA Litigation Blog

            The North Carolina Judicial Branch recently issued its Fiscal Year 2011-12 Annual Report, which gives us a real picture of the strain that our court system has been under for the past four years.  The stated mission of the Judicial Branch is “[t]o protect and preserve the rights and liberties of all the people, as guaranteed by the Constitutions and laws of the United States and North Carolina, by providing a fair, independent and accessible forum for the just, timely and economical resolution of their legal affairs,” (emphasis added).  Deep budget cuts and the corresponding ...

            The U.S. Supreme Court has issued several decisions over the past few years which have reinforced the federal policy favoring arbitration and have prevented class actions from proceeding against corporate defendants.  Among those decisions was Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 130 S.Ct. 1758 (2010), in which the Supreme Court took steps to preclude class arbitrations by prohibiting arbitrators from ordering the class arbitration of federal antitrust claims where (1) the arbitration agreement was silent on the class issue and (2) the parties stipulated that ...

            Argument in the first U.S. Supreme Court case reviewing the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (“CAFA”) was held on January 7th - The Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles (S.Ct. No. 1450).  We previously discussed the Knowles case in our series on the Supreme Court’s review of CAFA after the Court granted certiorari to review the case straight from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas (see part 1, part 2, and part 3).  At the heart of Knowles is a fight against the notion that class action plaintiffs have the power as “masters of the complaint” to manipulate ...

            This year we have seen state and federal courts issue opinion after opinion ordering sanctions against parties, and sometimes their counsel, for failing to adequately preserve electronically stored information relevant to litigation.  I moderated a discussion at the November 2012 Network of Trial Law Firms Litigation Management CLE seminar regarding critical issues that are keeping in-house counsel awake at night – concerns regarding discovery sanctions issued against in-house and outside counsel were high up on the list, coupled with concerns about the spiraling costs of ...

            In the digital age where the internet permeates every aspect of our lives and commerce, the courts are continually called upon to demarcate where and how communications and intellectual property laws apply to the services provided by websites and internet service providers.  Many internet-based companies find themselves facing potential liability based upon their legitimate business activities due to the unfortunate attempts by users of their services to thwart the intellectually property rights of others.  The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina is ...

This year we have followed significant developments affecting class action litigation and the force of arbitration agreements.  Many of these developments can be traced to the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 2011 decision regarding class arbitration waivers in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S.Ct. 1740 (2011), while others stem from broader issues related to requirements for certification of class actions, federal/state law preemption, and the viability of arbitration as an alternative forum for dispute resolution.  We have explored the enforceability of class arbitration ...

           Kilgore v. Keybank Nat'l Ass'n, No. 3:08-CV-02958-THE (N.D.Cal.) probes many questions as we already have discussed in our first and second posts, which you can read here and here.  In concluding our discussion, let us consider whether California’s Broughton-Cruz rule should be treated differently from other rules which categorically prohibit the arbitration of claims because the interests at stake in a case seeking public injunctive relief exceed the private interests of the parties to the arbitration agreement?  The California courts took the position that claims seeking ...

            In this post, we will continue our discussion regarding Kilgore v. Keybank Nat'l Ass'n, No. 3:08-CV-02958-THE (N.D.Cal.), which soon will be reheard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals en banc.  Kilgore explores the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S.Ct. 1740 (2011) on the validity of arbitration agreements in cases seeking public injunctive relief when there is a state rule that prohibits the arbitration of such claims.  You can read the first part of our discussion here.   

            The Kilgore plaintiff argues in many respects that ...

            “[T]he sometimes delicate and precarious dance between state law and federal law” once again will be performed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in its en banc review of Kilgore v. Keybank Nat'l Ass'n, No. 3:08-CV-02958-THE (N.D.Cal.).  Kilgore presents another opportunity to define the reach and limitations of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S.Ct. 1740 (2011), challenging long-standing state and federal policies regarding arbitration and probing the breadth of the preemptive power inherent in the Federal Arbitration Act ...

            The U.S. Supreme Court’s April, 2011 decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S.Ct. 1740 (2011) marked a significant change in the class action landscape with its validation of class arbitration waivers pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), despite state laws which previously held such waivers unconscionable and unenforceable.  Post-Concepcion, an arbitration clause that requires the arbitration of all disputes between parties and precludes any class or representative actions could potentially safeguard defendants against costly and ...