Seyfarth’s 10th annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report reveals transitive year, new challenges for employers facing workplace class action litigation in 2014

CHICAGO, Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Seyfarth Shaw LLP has released the 10^th annual edition of its Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, which is recognized as the nation's most complete guide to the state of workplace-related complex litigation. This year, in its largest Report ever, Seyfarth analyzed 1,123 class action rulings on a circuit-by-circuit and state-by-state basis to capture key themes from 2013 and emerging litigation trends facing U.S. companies in 2014.

Described as the "definitive source of information on employment class action litigation" and a resource that "no practitioner who deals with employment claims. . . should be without" by EPLiC Magazine, the Report is the sole compendium in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to workplace class action litigation. As the "go to" research and resource guide for businesses and their corporate counsel facing complex litigation, the 803-page Report is available again via eBook in 2014.

"In the past two years, we have seen a combination of Supreme Court decisions help create a defensive barrier for employers in class action cases," said Seyfarth's Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., co-chair of its Class Action Defense group and author of the Report. "Enough time has passed, however, that plaintiff lawyers have begun to breach this barrier with new theories and approaches and, combined with increasing and aggressive government enforcement litigation, employers may once again find themselves facing bet-the-company-type class actions in 2014."

More than any other development in 2013, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes continued to have a wide-ranging impact on virtually all class actions pending in federal and state courts throughout the country. Many Rule 23 decisions in 2013 pivoted off of Wal-Mart and leverage points in class action litigation increased or decreased depending on the manner in which judges interpreted and applied Wal-Mart.

In addition to these Rule 23 developments, the Seyfarth Report discusses a number of key trends for employers to heed in 2014, including:

• The increasing focus of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on high-stakes, big-impact litigation
• A continuing rising tide of Wage & Hour cases
• Implications of the Supreme Court's first ruling on the Class Action Fairness Act in Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles
• Additions to the increasing number of rulings allowing employers to use arbitration agreements to manage class action risks
• Rapid strategic changes due to rulings like Comcast Corp. v. Behrends

Divided into detailed chapters on leading class action settlements, federal law rulings, and state law rulings, the substantive areas examined by the Report include: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; EEOC pattern or practice cases; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; the Fair Labor Standards Act; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; state law rulings in employment law, wage and hour, and breach of contract cases; key CAFA rulings, and other class action rulings with significance to Rule 23 and/or workplace litigation.

The eBook is fully searchable, compatible with all major devices, allows readers to bookmark useful sections for easy future reference, and includes a number of other features, such as note-taking, highlighting and more. To order the Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, please click here.

About Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Seyfarth Shaw has more than 800 attorneys and provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate and real estate. With offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney and Washington, D.C., Seyfarth's clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies and reflect virtually every industry and segment of the economy. A recognized leader in delivering value and innovation for legal services, Seyfarth's acclaimed SeyfarthLean client service model has earned numerous accolades from a variety of highly respected third parties, including industry associations, consulting firms and media. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.

Contacts: Brian Kiefer, Director of Public Relations, (312) 460-6401, [email protected]

SOURCE Seyfarth Shaw LLP