* Taylor Lodise is a law clerk in the Litigation practice group.
In one of several related class-action lawsuits against the maker of a drink marketed under the brand name Joint Juice, Chief Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, applied case law from 103 years ago to reduce statutory damages in a consumer class action from the $91.4 million seemingly required by a New York statute to just $8.3 million plus pre-judgment interest of $4.5 million. The August ruling was based on Fourteenth Amendment due process protections as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1919 case St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Williams (“St. Louis”).
Juice Joint facing catastrophic liability after jury decides against it on the merits
Faced with a series of class-action lawsuits over its Joint Juice drink, Premier Nutrition Corp. has lost the first jury trial and is now fighting back against what could be a devastating financial blow if it loses a post-trial motion scheduled to be heard next month in the Northern District of California. The company was found by a jury to have falsely touted the health benefits of the drink, so the issue is no longer whether the claims were defensible, but how much the marketer will have to pay to the class of purchasers.
Class action attorneys score a victory
The New York Law Journal published an Expert Opinion article authored by attorneys Andrew Lustigman and Scott Shaffer, entitled “Are College Athletes the Next Fashion Stars?”.
Authored by Scott Shaffer and summer associate Christian Villatoro
Highest court affirms the right of the SEC to recover fraudulently obtained profits
Resolving a circuit split, the Supreme Court (the “Court”) has held that willfulness is not a precondition for disgorgement of an infringer’s profits from the infringement in a trademark infringement case. In Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil Group, Inc., the Court considered willfulness as but one of the factors that may be considered in deciding whether or not to award an infringer’s profits to a trademark holder, rejecting the premise that a showing of willfulness is required before an infringer’s profits may be awarded.
Oral arguments held in Liu v. SEC
5-4 decision rejects traditional principles of contract interpretation
The Supreme Court has unanimously vacated a Fifth Circuit decision concerning arbitrability. The court held that courts my not override a contract that tasks arbitrators with determining whether a claim should be arbitrated or litigated, even in the case that the quest for arbitration is “wholly groundless.”
Is there a constitutional right to social media? The ongoing dialogue surrounding First Amendment concerns born out of the Internet and social media was the focus of Supreme Court oral arguments on Monday, February 27, 2017. Discussing a North Carolina law that prohibits registered sex offenders from participating in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the justices’ comments seemed to suggest a likelihood that they would strike down such a law on First Amendment grounds.
But Spokeo does not definitively define what an injury-in-fact is.
Justice Ginsburg suggests, but does not approve, a new strategy
The Supreme Court of the United States has closed a loophole used by class action plaintiffs to avoid trying their cases federal court. The case, entitled Standard Fire Insurance v. Knowles, was decided on March 19, 2013.
The recent Supreme Court term resulted in a number of very important decisions that will impact companies engaging in advertising and marketing in the United States. Some decisions, such as Wal-Mart v. Dukes and AT&T v. Concepcion were pro-business particularly in the class action context.