PRETRIAL ADJUDICATION
...Pleading
......Class Actions
.........Generally
............Court Management
 12 Cards On This Topic:
  • Court management of Class Actions.
  • Abuse of discretion to rule on substantive merits concurrent with deciding class could be certified and before class notice had gone out.
  • If a judge makes a ruling and then chooses to recuse him- or herself, s/he is not retroactively disqualified from making the former ruling solely because both rulings are contained in one minute order.
  • While trial court need not determine legal merit of class action claim, it must determine whether legitimate controversy exists on a legal point, so as to assess whether parties' evaluation is within 'ballpark' of reasonableness.
  • Trial court properly sustained demurrer w/out leave in class action re nursing hour requirements at nursing homes where court would become involved in complex health care matters and assume regulatory functions of DHS.
  • Requiring possible class members to affirmatively agree to disclosure of personal information, rather than to object to it, was overprotective of privacy rights and inconsistent with established privacy principles.
  • Named Ps should have been given leave to amend class definition where differing dates on which they and class members obtained their loans did not affect community of interest alleged between them and were of no significance.
  • Privacy rights of class members who contacted Ps' counsel after neutral letter outweighed D's need for disclosure of their names and info; A/C privilege and W/P doctrine not violated.
  • After class cert denied, trial court cannot order notification of former potential class members of possible legal claims but may approve redrafted letter for discovery purposes re P's statutory damages.
  • Trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting precertification discovery in a class action to identify potential substitute class-action Ps.
  • Nonrestitutionary disgorgement is not available in a class action asserting violation of Cal.'s unfair competition statutes.
  • Precertification communication with potential class members, like pre-filing communication, is constitutionally protected speech and does not require judicial approval.


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