To assist class action defense attorneys anticipate the types of cases against which they will have to defend in California, 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 relevant time frame. This report covers the time period from April 29 – May 5, 2011, during which time 66 new class actions were filed in these courts. In previous years, class actions alleging employment-related claims often accounted for more than half of all class actions filed in these California courts, but this year has been a different story. This reporting period, aided by several class actions arising out of the hacking of Sony’s Play Station network, class actions alleging violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), which includes false advertising claims, seized the top spot, with 19 new filings (8 against Sony), representing 29% of the total number of new class actions filed this past week. The only other categories to break the 10% threshold involved labor law class actions, with 16 new filings (representing 24% of the total number of class actions filed), and class actions alleging violations of federal securities laws, with 9 new filings (14% of the total number of new class actions filed).
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