Class Certification Evidence: Standards of Admissibility and Probative Value Among the Circuits: Strategies for Opposing or Narrowing Class Certification and Preserving Objections, Hosted by Strafford

This CLE webinar will discuss whether plaintiffs moving to certify a class action are limited to only admissible evidence or whether, when determining certification, the trial judge may consider the evidence that it would exclude at trial. The panel will review the existing split among the circuits and their various rationales and offer best strategies for opposing or narrowing class certification in jurisdictions not yet part of the split and those that are.

Description

Certification typically increases a putative class' bargaining power in settlement discussions. Yet how a particular court will analyze certification and what evidence may be offered and relied on is not uniform among the federal circuits or district court, and the split may be getting worse. Additionally, there are numerous splits among the circuits on what is required to prove the elements for certification.

Certain courts expressly require that evidence at certification be admissible while others have remained circumspect, sending mixed signals. Further, courts apply different admissibility standards to fact evidence than to expert evidence.

A defendant may be sued in more than one district or circuit, and what was insufficient for certification in one may not be in the other. Because the standards are not settled, counsel must anticipate and preserve the right to revisit certification by preserving all objections and the factual record.

Listen as the panel of class action attorneys discusses the standards of admissibility of evidence at certification and best strategies for leveraging ambiguities.

Outline

• Fact evidence
  • Need not be admissible
  • Must be admissible
  • Ambiguous
• Expert evidence
  • Full Daubert analysis
  • Limited Daubert analysis
• Strategies for managing and leveraging the uncertainty

Benefits

The panel will explore these and other key issues:

• How can defense counsel preserve objections to admissibility?
• How can counsel leverage the law of other circuits in jurisdictions with no controlling precedent?

What does how a court assesses evidence imply about its view on admissibility standards?

Discount Code: ZDFCA (50% off)