Class and Collective Actions

Defending Against "Bet-the-Company" Litigation

Faced with a mountain of public and costly legal challenges, companies must rigorously defend themselves against "bet-the-company" class and collective actions. Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Class and Collective Actions Litigation Group guides clients through all phases of class and collective action litigation defense, focusing on early case assessment and resolution. When these efforts fail, our attorneys are experienced at defeating class certification and successfully guiding these cases to conclusion. We represent companies across a variety of industries, including consumer financial services, food and beverage, insurance, as well as employers of all kinds, in federal and state courts and in multidistrict class actions.

Our team regularly handles:

Consumer Financial Services Class Actions – defending banks, mortgage servicers, student loan servicers, auto finance companies and other finance companies from class actions arising under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), among other federal and state consumer protection statutes.
Food and Beverage Class Actions – defending nationwide class actions arising from claims of fraudulent misrepresentation and non-disclosure arising from menus. We also have defended collective and class actions arising from minimum wage, wage-and-hour, overtime and tip pooling matters brought by employees.
Insurance Class Actions – defending insurance companies in class actions involving payment practices, premium collection, policy procurement, corporate governance and timeliness of claim payments.
Product Liability Class Actions – defending manufacturers and distributors facing allegations of defective products from lawn chairs to medical devices.
Employment Collective and Class Actions – defending employers in collective and class actions involving minimum wage, wage-and-hour, overtime, and tip pooling matters brought by employees. We also have represented employers in federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Acts (WARN) class actions and pattern and practice class actions brought under state and federal discrimination laws.
Environmental Class Actions – defending landfill owners and operators in regional class actions in federal and state courts involving negligence and nuisance claims arising from odors alleged to be associated with landfill design, construction, operation and maintenance practices.
Class Actions Across Additional Industries, including higher education and real estate.

Related Services

Experience

Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr attorneys have handled these recent select class and collective action matters in the representation of:

Consumer Financial Services Class Actions

A national bank in a multi-district class action litigation arising from overdraft fee practices.

A national bank and mortgage corporations in the successful defense of multi-million-dollar consumer financial services class actions involving truth-in-lending, settlement services, broker compensation and other issues.

A national student loan servicer in a putative class action arising from alleged violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.

A national student loan servicer in a putative class action arising from alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A national auto finance company in two putative class actions arising from alleged violations of Maryland’s Credit Grantor Closed End Credit Provisions.

A national auto-finance company as co-counsel in a putative class action arising under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

A national auto finance company in a putative class action arising from alleged violations of Maryland’s Credit Grantor Closed End Credit Provision.
Food and Beverage Class Actions

A national restaurant chain in a putative class action arising from alleged violations of New York General Business Law §349.

A national restaurant chain in a first-of-its-kind pattern and practice class action challenging the enforceability of its arbitration agreement brought by the EEOC, which was dismissed on summary judgement.

One of the country’s largest restaurant franchisees in a wage-and-hour class action arising under New York’s labor law alleging failure to pay for all time worked and improper use of the tip credit. The case was resolved on favorable terms prior to class certification.
Insurance Class Actions

An insurance company in a federal court class action brought by a policyholder challenging claim payment practices. A dismissal for failure to state a claim was affirmed by the court.

An insurance company in a federal court class action brought by a policyholder challenging premium collection practices. The case settled on favorable terms after the national class was limited to less than 40 persons.

An insurance company in a federal court class action brought by a policyholder challenging policy procurement practices. The case was resolved on favorable terms.

An insurance company in a state court class action brought by a policyholder challenging corporate governance practices. The case was dismissed for lack of standing.

An insurance company in a state court class action brought by a policyholder challenging the timeliness of claim payments. Dismissal for lack of standing was affirmed by the court.
Product Liability Class Actions

A watch manufacturer in the defense of a putative class action alleging that a series of its watches is not waterproof as advertised.

A maker of alleged tainted biologics in hundreds of cases in state and federal court in which the litigation spanned more than a decade and included multi-district litigation and class action proceedings.
Employment Collective and Class Actions

A communication company in obtaining a Motion to Dismiss in a wage-and-hour class action.

A New York retailer from a putative class action arising under the New York State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and related action by the New York Department of Labor.

A New Jersey technology company in a putative nationwide class action arising from the Federal Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act.

An Illinois restaurant in a collective action under federal law and class action under state law alleging both that servers were not paid overtime and that the application of tip credit and tip pooling to the workforce was not applied lawfully or in compliance with the law.

An Illinois package delivery company in a misclassification case under the FLSA, Illinois Minimum Wage Act and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act.

An Illinois towing company in an FLSA overtime and misclassification case.

A public utility company in a collective and class action alleging failure to pay for all time worked and for overtime. The named plaintiffs were employed by a third-party contractor of our client and were also suing our client alleging that it was a joint employer. We succeeded in getting the court to dismiss our client and in convincing the plaintiffs to dismiss our client from the lawsuit with no settlement, just outright voluntary dismissal.

A laboratory services provider in two collective actions with phlebotomists alleging multiple OT violations of the FLSA, including on-call time and waiting time.
Environmental Class Actions

A national waste management company in defense of two putative class actions filed in a Pennsylvania state court, alleging improper landfill management and odors arising from landfill operations. Preliminary objections to both complaints are pending.

A national waste management company in a federal class action in Pennsylvania involving alleged landfill odors. We reached a favorable settlement for our client prior to the class certification hearing.

A chemical corporation in a class action against alleged claims of environmental contamination.

A corporation in a class action in defense of personal injury claims stemming from alleged chemical exposure.
Class Actions Across Additional Industries

A national reward program and marketing company in defense against a putative nationwide TCPA class action arising from alleged impermissible text messages.

A pharmaceutical company in negotiating the early resolution of a putative TCPA class action arising from alleged unsolicited facsimiles on an individual basis.

A regional property management company in the successful defense of two putative class actions involving claims asserted under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Maryland Consumer Debt Collection Act.

The CEO of a large regional real estate asset management company in the defense of a securities class action lawsuit.

An Illinois manufacturer in a federal and state collective and class action that resulted in dismissal prior to a responsive pleading being filed.

An alleged “robo-signer” of mortgages in the defense of DOJ and state attorney general investigations and related civil class actions.

A national drugstore company in an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) “drive-by” case brought as a putative nationwide class action involving policies and procedures on the maintenance of parking lots, which was settled at the pre-certification stage.

A Fortune 100 company in defense against threatened ADA Title III and state privacy class actions involving accessibility of several company websites.