Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association filed an amicus brief today supporting a request that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reverse the District Court’s order granting class certification in Mary Carr v. Google, arguing that the ruling violates both Article III and the Due Process Clause, having established a plaintiff class that likely includes a significant proportion of uninjured parties.
The amicus brief, co-filed with another non-profit association, the International Association of Defense Counsel, states that: “Unless district courts employ credible models and direct evidence to make class-wide determinations, they will inevitably pull in larger and larger swaths of uninjured class members as innovative technologies continue to proliferate and class actions become more expansive.”
The following can be attributed to CCIA Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Stephanie Joyce:
“The U.S. Constitution requires that all plaintiffs demonstrate actual injury, and that requirement must have equal force in class actions. Certifying improperly inflated classes could have far-reaching consequences for innovation, if digital services become easy targets for large class actions, and for the legal system which will be grossly overburdened with spurious lawsuits. We ask the Ninth Circuit to reverse the lower court’s order and demand that appropriately stringent analysis be conducted here and on all future requests for class treatment.”