State AGs in the News 16 Jan 2014

HOT NEWS

Unanimous Supreme Court Holds Class Action Fairness Act Does Not Apply to AG Actions

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held this week that suits filed by State AGs based on harm to consumers are not removable to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA). The decision in Mississippi ex rel. Hood v. AU Optronics Corp., an antitrust case brought by the State of Mississippi in state court against makers of LCD displays, resolves a circuit-split between the Fifth Circuit, which held such cases are mass actions removable under CAFA, and the Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, which held they were not. No. 12-1036. The Court determined that the plaintiff language of CAFA's mass action provision, which refers to suits by "100 or more persons," referred to named plaintiffs bringing a case jointly, and could not be read, as the Fifth Circuit had held, to also include unnamed consumers alleged to be the real parties in interest in litigation filed by the AG alone. The result is one advocated by the 46 AGs who filed an amicus brief last year urging the Court to reject the applicability of CAFA to AG actions on the grounds that it would interfere with states' sovereign right to bring parens patriae actions in their own courts and draw cases involving state law away from the state courts best positioned to interpret those laws. Our more in-depth blog post on this decision can be found here. Patent Troll Roundtable with InsideCounsel and Dickstein Shapiro

InsideCounsel and Dickstein Shapiro are co-hosting a roundtable on February 4, 2014 in New York City that will focus on the rise of patent trolls. The issue of patent trolls is an area of mutual concern for State AGs and corporate legal officers, and the roundtable will include panelists from both groups. Vermont AG Bill Sorrell, Nebraska AG Jon Bruning, and North Carolina AG Roy Cooper, will join the panel to discuss their recent efforts to combat harmful business practices involving patent trolls in their states. The general counsels of DuPont, Rackspace, and Walmart US will also participate in the panel and will speak about the impact patent trolls have had on their businesses. Bernie Nash, Practice Leader of Dickstein Shapiro's State Attorneys General Practice, will moderate the panel. Click here for more information about the event. CHARITIES

Connecticut and Tennessee Attorneys General Investigate Charity that Raised Money for Those Affected by the 2012 Newtown...