Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Bilich

J.D. Seminar 088 | 3 credit hours

Class actions continue to be the most dynamic aspect of federal civil litigation. When legislatures cannot resolve major public policy disputes, those disputes often end up in court, usually as a proposed class action or other form of aggregate litigation. This seminar takes on those issues, addressing the class action device as a bold and often controversial attempt to resolve disputes on an aggregate basis. The principal focus will be on emerging procedural and constitutional issues, and the treatment of those issues in the Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. The seminar will evaluate class actions in many different settings, including mass tort, securities fraud, civil rights, employment discrimination, and consumer fraud. Using the instructor's casebook as the basis for study, the seminar will cover all phases of a class action, including pleading and other pre-certification issues, discovery, the certification decision, case management issues, class notice, settlement, trial, and judicial review.

Prerequisite: Civil Procedure (or the equivalent Legal Process and Society).

Students may not receive credit for both this course and Complex Litigation; or Class Actions and Other Aggregated Litigation or Class Action Law and Practice; or Prison Reform Through Class Action Litigation.

Students must register for the 3 credit section of the seminar if they wish to write a paper fulfilling the Upperclass Legal Writing Requirement. Students in the 2 credit section will take an exam.