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On Saturday, my author’s copy of the Class Action Playbook, Second Edition arrived. Writing this was a significant project for me in late 2011/early 2012, so I’m chuffed to see it finally out.
But wait, I hear you say. Didn’t you just publish the original edition recently? Why do a new edition so soon?
Good question. From the preface of the 2d Edition:
It has been only two years since we published the first edition of the Class Action Playbook, and we have to admit, while we had thought that we might eventually publish a second edition, we had not expected to do so so soon. But—from the class-action litigator’s standpoint—these have been a remarkably eventful two years.
The law has changed significantly. The Supreme Court has decided an unparalleled six cases that affected class-action law, a very large number in such a short time. These have included Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, which redefined commonality and provided definitive guidance about when a party may invoke Rule 23(b)(2); AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, which requires parties to submit to agreed arbitration, even if the plaintiff would prefer to bring a class action; Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Company, which held that a securities plaintiff need not prove loss causation in order to secure class certification; Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v. Siracusano, which defined the extent to which a securities plaintiff must plead scienter or materiality; Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., which held that a securities plaintiff with no connection to the United States may not avail itself of the U.S. court system; and Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates v. Allstate Insurance Company, which held that state substantive rules prohibiting class actions do not trump Rule 23. In keeping with the stated mission of this book to dis- cuss strategy rather than caselaw, we have not included extensive discussions of the Supreme Court’s new cases. What we have done instead is to revise our discussions of various strategies wherever we saw these new cases having a significant effect. Some of those effects were expected, but some were not.
We also now have more “official” commentary on class actions. The American Law Institute published its statement of the PRINCIPLES OF AGGREGATE LITIGATION, which adds a further, highly persuasive source on aggregated litigation. As a result, it made sense to provide citations to this important new source of law, and to note where it supports plaintiffs’ or defendants’ arguments.
The Second Edition of the Class Action Playbook goes on sale September 14, 2012; you can pre-order it at Amazon. I hope you’ll check it out.
Also, both the Class Action Playbook and this blog now have pages on Facebook. Feel free to check them out (and like them).