In a well-reasoned order, the court in Sherman v. Yahoo! Inc. has denied the plaintiff’s motion for class certification. The District Court for the Southern District of California reached several decisions in this case that could be very useful for other businesses defending themselves from similar TCPA lawsuits.
In denying class certification, the court found that the Plaintiff failed to meet her burden in demonstrating that she had proposed an ascertainable class, that she was typical of the proposed class members and would adequately represent them, that common questions of fact or law predominated over individual consent issues, and that a class action was superior to other available methods for resolving any potential disputes.
Defeating class certification generally drops potential settlement numbers by several orders of magnitude. For example, a class action case that may have settled in the millions may settle on an individual basis for a few thousand dollars once class certification is defeated. Plaintiff law firms also generally lose interest in the case once class certification is defeated.
Court denies class action status in Sherman v. Yahoo! Inc.
