In order to assist class action defense attorneys anticipate the types of class actions against which they will have to defend in California state and federal courts, we provide weekly, unofficial summaries of the legal categories for new class action lawsuits filed in California state and federal courts in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, San Mateo, Oakland/Alameda and Orange County areas. We include only those categories that include 10% or more of the class action filings during the preceding week. This report covers September 12 – 18, 2008, during which time an unusually high number of new class action lawsuits were filed — 61. Class action lawsuits asserting employment-related claims generally top the new class action filings list, often by a wide margin. This yet again proved to be true. During the past week, 28 of the new class action lawsuits involved labor law claims, representing 46% of the total number of new class actions filed. The only other categories that satisfied the 10% threshold involved class action lawsuits alleging unfair business practice claims, which include false advertising claims, with 9 new filings (15%), and class action lawsuits alleging violations federal securities laws, with 8 new filings (13%).
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