CCL’s Robert S. Peck served as the moderator for an all-day seminar on Consumer Warranty Class Actions, sponsored by the American Association for Justice at its headquarters June 4.  The seminar covered operation of the Magnuson-Moss Act, challenges to class actions, special issues arising at the certification stage, lessons from the Whirlpool moldy washer litigation, and approaches to settlement.

In his opening remarks to set the stage for the day, Peck talked about how class actions were under the most severe attack since their inception. He noted that these challenges occur through legislative actions, court decisions, press accounts, and rulemaking changes. While the seminar was not designed to address paths through all those thickets, it covered a number of successful strategies in consumer class actions.

CCL has handled a number of appeals in class action and related cases. Currently, CCL’s Lou Bograd is set to argue a case before the Ninth Circuit, en banc, on whether coordination under California’s rules of civil procedure constitute a “mass action” for removal under the federal Class Action Fairness Act. A panel of the Ninth Circuit held that coordination is not the equivalent of attempting to try a case jointly and thus does not qualify for removal.  Bograd’s argument will seek an affirmance of that decision.