Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Mark Perry

J.D. Course 088 | 2 credit hours

Class actions in such diverse areas as securities and corporate governance, employment discrimination, toxic torts, mass accidents, and consumer fraud have challenged the capacity and creativity of federal and state courts throughout the Nation. New forms of class suits continue to pose challenging questions for the judiciary. This seminar will focus on the class action device as an attempt to resolve disputes on an aggregate basis. The principal focus will be on emerging procedural and constitutional issues raised in recent and pending class action suits, and the treatment of those issues in the Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. The seminar will explore these issues by evaluating class actions in a variety of settings, focusing on appellate decisions that have resolved (or failed to resolve) significant issues in class action law and practice as well as case-studies of pending or recently decided class actions. The seminar will cover all phases of a class action, including pleading and other pre-certification issues, the certification decision, appeals from class certification decisions, class notice, settlement issues, trial, and the legal doctrines governing simultaneous overlapping federal and state-court litigation.

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

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