On June 7, 2019, an en banc Ninth Circuit panel affirmed certification of a nationwide settlement class and held, 8-3, that class certification criteria are applied less strictly in a settlement context. Hyundai II preserves the ability to certify nationwide settlement classes while maintaining more demanding requirements for litigation classes. As noted in our earlier post, the prior panel decision, which denied certification, sent class action lawyers into a tizzy, creating concerns about the viability of nationwide class settlements. Hyundai II reversed course, holding that the predominance requirement differs in a settlement context because there is no need to consider the manageability of individual issues at trial.
Read our blog post.