Business Defeats Certification of Nationwide Class Action in Eighth Circuit Appeal
In a nationwide class action lawsuit alleging deceptive trade practices for advertising of a product, a lower court had certified a class and uniformly applied only the forum state’s law to all class members’ claims. Part of the problem was that those claims had been consolidated in this…
Arkansas Business Fights NLRB to the Eighth Circuit
A recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion should serve as a reminder to Arkansas businesses that the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) (the federal governmental agency responsible for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices) remains…
Good Deal or Bad? Complex Commercial Litigation Even When You've Done Everything Right
A business swoops in and buys substantially all of the assets of a competitor in distress, but first does its due diligence and discovers the skeletons in the closet. The purchaser expressly does not assume the competitor’s liabilities or obligations. The purchaser does everything by-the-book, and…
How Much is Enough to Remove? Considerations that Shouldn't be "Smuggled into the Judicial Inquiry."
A plaintiff filed a class-action complaint in state court alleging a potential liability of $2.9 million to the class, plus fees and punitive damages. The defendant conducted its own calculation and determined that the amount in controversy in the case could plausibly top $5 million, thus crossing…
Proceeding Without Local Counsel—lawyer beware!
Arkansas law is clear that “pleadings filed on behalf of another by a person not licensed to practice law in [Arkansas] are a nullity.” DeSoto Gathering Co. v. Hill, 531 S.W.3d 396, 403 (Ark. 2017). Normally, this means that out-of-state lawyers associate with local counsel or make a motion to…