Stephen Miller and Nicholas Karwacki, both of Cozen O'Connor's Commercial Litigation department, discuss the US Supreme Court revisiting class-action suits in 'Campbell Ewald'. Must a plaintiff accept a defendant's surrender? That is the question posed in Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez, No. 14-857—indeed, expressly posed by an exasperated Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. at oral argument, when he upbraided the lead plaintiffs lawyer: "You won't take 'yes' for an answer." In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether a defendant's offer to provide complete relief to the named representative of a proposed class action moots both the representative's individual claim and the claim of the proposed class. This case may significantly impact the landscape of future class-action litigation by determining whether a defendant may stifle putative class claims by "picking-off" the named plaintiff.
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