2012 Landmark Year for Workplace Class Action Litigation: Study

When it comes to complex employment-related legal disputes, 2012 will be considered a landmark year, according to a new report on employment class action litigation.

Many of the key rulings of 2012 in class action cases hinged on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2011 rulings in three milestone cases — Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, and Smith v. Bayer— according to the 9th annual edition of the “Workplace Class Action Litigation Report,” published by Seyfarth Shaw LLP. The report covers 1,059 class action rulings rendered by federal and state courts in 2012 on workplace laws.

Chief among these Supreme Court decisions, Wal-Mart’s impact on changing Rule 23 class certification standards dominated the legal landscape in 2012 and was cited by lower courts an astounding 541 times in 2012, generating a tidal wave of new class certification rulings and related decisions on a wide variety of class action issues.

“Marked by the halo effect of Wal-Mart, this past year created a number of lasting changes in employment law that will continue to alter the legal landscape and litigation strategies for employers in 2013,” said Seyfarth’s Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., co-chair of its Class Action Defense group and author of the report. “Meanwhile, wage and hour claims continue to rise with no sign of a crest in lawsuit filings and the EEOC’s renewed focus on systemic investigations also pose high-stakes challenges for employers.”

The Seyfarth report identifies six emerging workplace class action trends for employers to heed in 2013:

The 870-page report is available at http://www.seyfarth.com/publications/Ninth-Annual-Workplace-Class-Action.