Preventing the Subversion of Devlin v. Scardelletti

Class Action Litigation Report, Vol. 6, pp. 453-458, 2005

Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 12-139

7 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2012

See all articles by Brian Wolfman

Brian Wolfman

Georgetown University Law Center

Date Written: June 25, 2005

Abstract

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Devlin v. Scardelletti that objecting class members could appeal a federal district court’s approval of a class settlement without first intervening in the litigation. Public interest lawyer Brian Wolfman says the ruling was a victory for both objectors and the integrity of class action procedure: Objectors, he argues, help keep fairness hearings fair.

But a number of courts are now ruling that Devlin only applies to non-opt-out class actions, rather than the much more numerous ones that give class members opt-out rights. In this article, Wolfman details the exact wording of the Supreme Court decision and asserts that the high court clearly did not limit the application of Devlin.

Keywords: Supreme Court, Devlin v. Scardelletti, class actions, settlements, appeals, opt-out rights

JEL Classification: K00, K30, K39

Suggested Citation

Wolfman, Brian, Preventing the Subversion of Devlin v. Scardelletti (June 25, 2005). Class Action Litigation Report, Vol. 6, pp. 453-458, 2005, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 12-139, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2150362

Brian Wolfman (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/brian-wolfman/

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
46
Abstract Views
672
PlumX Metrics