On October 18, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the Eastern District of Virginia approved a $70 million settlement in an antitrust case, with more than $23.3 million awarded to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. This case helpfully illustrates the factors courts in the Fourth Circuit analyze when considering class action settlements and showcases the sizable fees plaintiffs’ attorneys can obtain. The case is In re Zetia (Ezetimibe) Antitrust Litigation, No. 2:18-md-02836-RBS-DEM.
Fourth Circuit Now Permits Awarding Attorney’s Fees for Some Preliminary Injunctions, Bucking Precedent
Plaintiffs who secure a preliminary injunction may now be able to recover attorney’s fees in the Eastern District of Virginia, due to the Fourth Circuit’s departure from its previous position that such plaintiffs are not “prevailing parties” for purposes of recovering attorney’s fees.
Pro Hac Vice, Ye Be Warned: A Cautionary Tale to Out-of-State Attorneys and Their Local Counsel
On August 23, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith issued a notable decision that serves as a stern warning to out-of-state counsel seeking to practice in the Eastern District — and, perhaps more so, to the local counsel who choose to associate with them.
EDVA Judge Rules Supplemental Jurisdiction Is Not a Basis for Removal
A recent EDVA decision reinforced the point that removal to federal court must be based on the existence of either federal question or diversity jurisdiction, but not supplemental jurisdiction.
EDVA Judge Dismisses Data Breach Class Action for Lack of Article III Standing
The modern “Information Age” has been defined by rapidly increasing interconnectivity and dependence on the internet by consumers and businesses alike. One side effect of these technological advances has been the increasing frequency of cyberattacks and data breaches perpetrated by sophisticated cyber criminals using ever-evolving methods of infiltration. And, as can be expected, along with the increase in data breaches over the past few decades, we have seen the rise of data breach litigation, and in particular, consumer class action litigation against the companies who have been victimized by those data breaches. The Fourth Circuit has seen several high-profile data breach class actions. Such class actions often face difficult uphill battles in proving the necessary elements for class certification, particularly when it comes to defining a theory of harm that can be proven by common evidence across the class. Last month, Judge Gibney of the Richmond Division of the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed one such data breach class action case for a more basic problem: the named plaintiffs could not demonstrate they had suffered any concrete injury sufficient to establish Article III standing at all, let alone damages that could be proven classwide. Holmes v. Elephant Ins. Co., No. 3:22cv487, 2023 WL 4183380 (E.D. Va. June 26, 2023).