Civil Procedure Outline - Class Actions

Rule 23

• Under Rule 23(a), there are four prerequisites for class action treatment.
• Numerosity- Class must be sufficiently numerous that "joinder of all members is impracticable."
• Commonality of questions of law or fact
• "Common nucleus of operative fact"
• Core issues to justify it.
• Typicality- in terms of claims and defensive of representative parties.
• Adequacy of Representativeness of lawyers and class representative.
• Named class members have to be representative of the class.

• If Rule 23(a) is met, case must satisfy one of the three types of class actions set forth in Rule 23(b):
• Rule 23(b)(1)(a) for cases creating a risk of inconsistent adjudications that would create "incompatible standards of conduct" for the party opposing the class.
• Rule 23(b)(2) when D has acted or refused to act in a way generally applicable to the class, so that "final injunctive relief" (or declaratory relief) is appropriate.
• Rule 23(b)(3)
• Most common for "damage" class actions.
• Notice will require "opt-out" possibility
• Court must assess more requirements:
• The common questions of law or fact "predominate" over individual issues.
• The class action approach is "superior" to other approaches.
• Ex: Plane crash- all different injuries, very personalized, each person can get their own lawyer.
• The "manageability" of the class action.