News & Publications

Most class-action lawyers know about Johnson v. NPAS Solutions., LLC—an Eleventh Circuit panel decision that outlawed service awards to lead plaintiffs in class actions, which "compensate[] a class representative for his time and rewards him for bringing a lawsuit." 975 F.3d 1244, 1260 (11th Cir. 2020). You'd be forgiven for initially writing off Johnson as an aberration. It overturned decades of longstanding class-action practice based upon two 19th Century Supreme Court cases that pre-date Federal Rule of Civil [...]

In Brianna Garza and Mario Garza v. Matthew Perry and American Family Insurance Company, No. 83377-4-I, the Washington Court of Appeals determined that an insurance company could not intervene in an action intending to nullify a settlement agreement involving a covenant judgment. The court denied the insurer's attempt to nullify the covenant judgment settlement because it was not a party to the agreement, and upheld the lower court's approval of the agreement through a reasonableness hearing. [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court recently weighed in on an issue regarding a provision of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) that has split two federal courts of appeal. Its 5-4 ruling is welcome news for U.S. residents who "non-willfully" violate the law's requirements for the reporting of certain foreign bank and financial accounts on what is generally known as an FBAR. The U.S. Supreme Court recently weighed in on an issue regarding a provision of the [...]