28. Is the court likely to certify the class?

A class action involves a single plaintiff or small group of plaintiffs who represent a larger group, or «class» of people who share a common interest. A class action may be useful when the number of plaintiffs is too large.

In a class action, only the named class representatives must satisfy the requirements of personal jurisdiction, subject-matter jurisdiction, and venue. As a result, a class action may be helpful if a group of plaintiffs would have difficulties satisfying personal jurisdiction, venue, or diversity.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 23 lays out FIVE requirements of a class action, including that the case must:

(i) be so large that joinder of all members is impracticable;

(ii) contain common questions of law or fact shared by the class;

(iii) have claims or defenses from the named representatives that are typical of those in the class;

(iv) have representatives that fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class; AND

(v) meet the definition of one of the THREE TYPES of classes enumerated under 23(b), including cases where:

a single action is necessary to avoid inconsistent outcomes or impairment of absent members' interests;injunctive or declaratory relief is necessary in response to a defendant's actions or inactions; ORcommon questions of fact or law among the members prevail over individual members' issues.

The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) adds protections to class action suits in federal court, including the expansion of subject-matter jurisdiction over many large class action lawsuits.

CAFA permits federal courts to preside over certain class actions in diversity jurisdiction where:

(i) the aggregate amount in controversy exceeds $5 million;

(ii) the class comprises at least 100 plaintiffs; AND

(iii) there is at least «minimal diversity» between the parties (i.e., at least one plaintiff class member is diverse from at least one defendant).

At some point before trial, a federal court must «certify» the action, meaning the court must affirmatively determine that the lawsuit meets the requirements of FRCP 23. Until certification has occurred, the action is called a putative class action.

Class action certification requires class representatives to have claims or defenses that are typical of the claims or defenses of the rest of the class. This «typicality» requirement ensures that representatives will stand in the shoes as the average class member.

B is correct. Class certification requires «typicality» among claims and defenses, meaning the class representative's claims must be typical of the rest of the class. This is because the named plaintiff is supposed to represent common interests of the class members who are too numerous to be named.

Here, the man's claim totals $77,000, which is much greater than the other members' claims, which do not exceed $100 each. The man's claim, therefore, is not «typical» of the rest of the class and the court is likely to deny certification.

A is incorrect. This answer choice states the correct conclusion with the incorrect legal reasoning. A federal court must certify a class before it will determine whether other requirements are satisfied under the FRCP and CAFA. It is true that a class action must have an amount in controversy exceeding $5 million, but if the court declines to certify the class, there is no need to make the other jurisdictional determinations. Here, because the man's $77,000 claim is not typical of the rest of the class members' claims, the court is unlikely to certify.

C is incorrect. Although it is true that a class action may be a fair and efficient way to resolve disputes involving a high number of plaintiffs, this is not the case where the named plaintiff (here, the man) does not have interests that are typical of the rest of the class. The goal of a class action is to adjudicate on behalf of a lot of people with a shared set of interests. Without shared interests, the named plaintiff's relief will not serve to obtain relief for the greater class.

D is incorrect. Whether the man's claim alone satisfies diversity jurisdiction is not indicative of whether the court may certify this class action. The issue is whether the court should certify the class, not whether the court has diversity jurisdiction over the man's own claim. Once you determine that the court is unlikely to certify the class, the analysis ends.