Class Actions
They have a very strong team, and have the capacity to handle large engagements.Chambers USA
Practice Overview
Buckley, a preeminent class action defense firm, vigorously defends leading financial institutions, including banks and non-bank mortgage lenders and servicers, credit card issuers, auto lenders, PACE administrators, and insurers, as well as retailers in putative class actions across the nation. We are involved in class action claims alleging violations of a wide range of federal and state consumer protection laws, as well as consumer credit statutes, wrongful underwriting and servicing practices, credit discrimination, and inflated or otherwise wrongful insurance claims.
Buckley has achieved groundbreaking success for our clients in these disputes, frequently obtaining dismissal at the pleading stage. We consistently deliver efficient and effective representation in class action matters by combining our knowledge of the financial services industry and relevant regulations to devise the best possible and most comprehensive defense strategies imaginable.
In addition, we frequently handle complex parallel proceedings, including government enforcement and civil litigation, congressional investigations, and regulatory counseling matters that often present themselves alongside class action litigation.
Our Class Actions team includes some of the most experienced financial services class action trial and appellate attorneys in the country. Our firm is ranked nationally in Band 1 by Chambers for consumer finance litigation, with four Buckley lawyers included among the top 17 consumer finance litigators in the United States.
Noteworthy work includes the representation of:
- A bank in a series of putative class actions concerning the bank’s processing of ACH transactions submitted by online payday lenders that are owned and operated by Indian tribes
- Multiple financial institutions in a class action, against over 50 other banks, seeking to recover allegedly excessive overdraft fees for charges made to customers' accounts on electronic debit transactions
- A national bank and one of its operating subsidiaries in a putative class action challenging the interest rate allegedly charged pursuant to an equipment finance agreement between the client and a California resident and small business owner, obtaining a dismissal of all claims
- A national bank, in which class certification was defeated and a partial judgment on pleadings in a class action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was obtained
- Financial institutions in putative class actions alleging violations of various state UDAP laws, including California’s Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.)
- Property Assessed Clean Energy administrators in putative class actions involving allegations of unfair, unlawful, and deceptive advertising and marketing practices
- Numerous entities, including financial institutions, in putative nationwide Telephone Consumer Protection Act class actions
- Insurance companies in multiple putative nationwide and state-specific class actions concerning lender-placed insurance
- A mortgage originator and servicer in a mass action involving hundreds of mortgage borrowers alleging various fraudulent acts in connection with the origination and servicing of their loans
- Banks and nonbank mortgage lenders in putative class actions challenging the formation and operation of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System
- Large mortgage servicer in a putative nationwide class action regarding customer enrollment in home service and home warranty plans
- Leading credit card issuer in a class action regarding the reduction in credit lines and assessment of overlimit fees
Topic Spotlight: Assistance in responding to government oversight of pandemic relief
The federal government’s financial response to the Covid-19 pandemic is measured in trillions of dollars, and the intensity of oversight related to that response reflects this unprecedented commitment. All involved in the government’s response, particularly financial services providers, should expect increased scrutiny of how those dollars have been and will be spent.
Buckley’s white collar, enforcement, congressional investigations, class actions, complex civil litigation, and False Claims Act & FIRREA teams are prepared to assist with government and congressional inquiries, examinations, investigations, and government and private party litigation that arise from the pandemic response. We work closely with our financial services regulatory practices to combine the firm’s core substantive experience with our deep knowledge of government investigations and litigation of all kinds.
They have a very strong team, and have the capacity to handle large engagements.Chambers USA
Articles
"Relief or risk?: The hidden costs of government lending" by Michelle L. Rogers, Katherine L. Halliday, and Katherine Brockway Katz (National Law Journal)
There is no longer any question that the economy will take years, not months, to fully recover from COVID-19, and additional funding for government and government-backed loans seems inevitable at some point. Examining the programs from the initial COVID-19 relief package provides context for...
Articles"Budding decentralized finance industry comes with risks" by Ali M. Abugheida (Law360)
The sudden rise of Compound Labs Inc.'s COMP governance token in recent months pushed decentralized finance into the headlines, raising the profile of blockchain-based finance systems to a more mainstream audience. This article provides a short primer on decentralized finance and discusses some of...
Articles"What constitutes reasonable security per Calif. privacy law?" by Amanda R. Lawrence, Michael A. Rome, and James C. Chou (Law360)
California Consumer Privacy Act compliance has been focused on developing the policies, procedures and infrastructure to support new privacy rights for California residents, which include, among other things, the right to know what personal information companies have on them, the right to delete...
Articles"Preparing for private right of action under Calif. privacy law" by Amanda R. Lawrence and Michael A. Rome (Law360)
The California Consumer Privacy Act went into effect at the beginning of this year, and while the California attorney general will not begin enforcing it until July, the private right of action that the CCPA created is available to consumers now. The CCPA expressly provides for a private right of...
Articles"Mitigating crypto UDAAP risk after Ripple ICO ruling" by Ali M. Abugheida (Law360)
Cryptocurrency advocates have long argued that cryptocurrencies are not securities, and therefore not subject to state and federal securities laws. But a district court in California just shed light on whether advocates’ desired outcome also carries a substantial downside: application of state and...
Articles"NY credit card securitization class action misuses Madden" by Walter E. Zalenski (Law360)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's decision in Madden v. Midland Funding LLC is deservedly notorious. The Madden court erroneously held that state usury laws may prohibit a national bank’s assignee from enforcing the interest rate on a credit agreement that was valid under the law...
Articles"The great data breach standing circuit split" by Amanda R. Lawrence and Michael A. Rome (Law360)
Data breaches are back in the news in a big way. Over the past several weeks alone, prominent hotel chains, online platforms and retailers announced significant data breaches. Unsurprisingly, in the aftermath of these disclosures, consumers filed class actions alleging that the data breaches...
ArticlesSpecial Alert: D.C. Circuit significantly narrows FCC’s order defining autodialer
On March 16, the D.C. Circuit issued its much anticipated ruling in ACA International v. FCC . The D.C. Circuit’s ruling significantly narrows a Federal Communication Commission order from 2015, which, among other things, had broadly defined an “autodialer” for purposes of the Telephone Consumer...
Special Alerts"The rise and fall of statistical sampling in RMBS cases" by Amanda Lawrence and Michael A. Rome (Law360)
The 2008 mortgage crisis prompted a wave of residential mortgage-backed securities and repurchase litigation as trustees, certificate holders (i.e. investors), monoline insurers, securitizers and other stakeholders pursued claims related to loans securitized in RMBS trusts. One of the hallmarks of...
ArticlesFredrick S. Levin Authored a Law360 Article, "2 Litigation Trends Offer Guidance On TCPA Compliance"
$76 million, $14.8 million, $12 million and $3.7 million. These numbers represent some of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act settlement agreements negotiated in 2017. As shown by these numbers, TCPA litigation continues to be a leading litigation risk for corporate America. Recently, several...
ArticlesAmanda Lawrence and Michael A. Rome Authored a Law360 Article, "The Great Class Action Ascertainability Debate"
In recent years, courts have divided sharply over whether or not Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure creates an implicit requirement that a class must be ascertainable in order to be certified. This article addresses the meaning of ascertainability, the circuit split over whether and to...
ArticlesSpecial Alert: California Supreme Court Invalidates Widely Used Arbitration Provisions and Curtails the Scope of Proposition 64
On April 6, the California Supreme Court published its opinion in McGill v. Citibank, N.A., finding unenforceable arbitration agreements that purport to waive claims for public injunctive relief brought under California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), Civ. Civ. Code, § 1750 et seq., its...
ArticlesSpecial Alert: Madden Class Action Moves Forward
On February 27, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a ruling in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC , [1] holding that New York’s fundamental public policy against usury overrides a Delaware choice-of-law clause in the plaintiff’s credit card agreement. The court allowed...
ArticlesWhat Companies Can Expect After Campbell-Ewald
May defendants moot a putative class action by merely offering complete relief to the putative class representative? The U.S. Supreme Court says no, and the decision may have profound implications on class actions for years to come. Some options may remain, however, if more than a mere offer can be...
ArticlesClass Action Settlement Considerations: Ten Tips for a Successful Settlement (The Case Law)
The following article discusses recent, significant decisions on federal class action settlements. While not all inclusive, these cases may help practitioners avoid common (and some not-so-common) pitfalls when trying to reach a successful, lasting class action settlement. This article assumes that...
ArticlesSpecial Alert: Class Action Suit Filed Based on CFPB Consent Order
In what may be the first action of its kind, a consumer who received restitution under the CFPB consent order has filed a class action lawsuit based on the same alleged violations. While this litigation is still in its early stages, it serves as an important reminder that an institution’s exposure...
ArticlesNeutralizing the Putative Lead Plaintiff
In two recent cases— Damasco v. Clearwire Corp. and Pitts v. Terrible Herbst, Inc —the 7th and 9th Circuits, respectively, reached conflicting results on the issue of whether an offer of judgment for the full amount of a putative lead plaintiff’s own claim moots a class action complaint if the...
Articles
News & Blogs
National bank settles merchant processing fee class action for $40 million
On January 12, a national bank’s merchant services division agreed to pay up to $40 million to settle a class action alleging that the bank overcharged for payment processing services. According to the November 2017 amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New...
InfoBytesCourt grants preliminary approval of CCPA class action settlement
On December 29, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted preliminary approval of a proposed settlement in a class action alleging a children’s clothing company and cloud technology service provider (collectively, “defendants”) violated, among other things, the...
InfoBytesAnother district court dismisses PPP agent fee class action
On November 16, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued an order dismissing a putative class action against several large banks over whether agents providing consulting, legal, accounting, and tax preparation services are entitled to “agent fees” from lenders for...
InfoBytesAnother district court dismisses TCPA action for lack of jurisdiction
On October 29, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio dismissed a TCPA action against an energy service company and “ten John Doe corporations” (collectively, defendants), concluding that the court lacked jurisdiction over cases involving unconstitutional laws. According to the...
InfoBytesOnline bank reaches settlement with customers over service disruption
On October 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order granting preliminary approval of a putative class action settlement concerning allegations that an online bank’s service disruption prevented customers from accessing their account, including through card...
InfoBytesSplit en banc 11th Circuit vacates $6.3 million FACTA settlement
On October 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in a 7-3 en banc decision, vacated a $6.3 million Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) class action settlement, concluding the plaintiffs lacked standing because they did not allege any concrete harm. According to the...
InfoBytesParties file unopposed settlement requiring credit union to pay $16 million to resolve insufficient funds fee lawsuit
On October 21, class members filed an unopposed motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which would—if approved—require a national credit union to establish a $16 million common fund, pay all settlement...
InfoBytesDistrict court certifies another RESPA class over kickback referrals
On October 2, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland certified a class of mortgage borrowers who alleged that a Maryland bank referred them to a title firm in exchange for cash and kickbacks in violation of RESPA. The court’s decision approved a class defined as borrowers of federally...
InfoBytes9th Circuit splits with 4th Circuit, concludes arbitration agreement does not apply to acquired company
On September 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a split opinion affirming a district court’s decision against arbitration in a proposed class action, which accused a satellite TV provider (defendant) of violating the TCPA by allegedly placing unauthorized prerecorded...
InfoBytesDistrict court allows some claims to proceed in ATM-fee action
On September 28, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California allowed fraud claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and breach of contract claims to proceed against a national bank and several independent ATM operators (collectively, “defendants”) in a putative...
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FYI
"Relief or risk?: The hidden costs of government lending" by Michelle L. Rogers, Katherine L. Halliday, and Katherine Brockway Katz (National Law Journal)
"Budding decentralized finance industry comes with risks" by Ali M. Abugheida (Law360)
"What constitutes reasonable security per Calif. privacy law?" by Amanda R. Lawrence, Michael A. Rome, and James C. Chou (Law360)
Recent Blog Posts
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January 14, 2021
National bank settles merchant processing fee class action for $40 million
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January 8, 2021
Court grants preliminary approval of CCPA class action settlement
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November 16, 2020
Another district court dismisses PPP agent fee class action
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November 4, 2020
Another district court dismisses TCPA action for lack of jurisdiction
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November 2, 2020
Online bank reaches settlement with customers over service disruption