Class Action Tolling Issues: Untangling Which Class Claims May Survive Dismissal From Federal Court

In class actions filed or removed to federal court, standing and certification decisions often take years and significant discovery to resolve. Certification can be granted, denied, or revoked. Standing and even the definition of claims can change. Meanwhile, claims of absent class members may expire.

Statutes of limitations are tolled during the pendency of a federal class action in accordance with American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538 (1974) and China Agritech Inc. v. Resh, 138 S. Ct. 1800 (2018). In Ramirez, the Supreme Court constricted federal jurisdiction over class actions. As the dissent noted, however, class action claims unwelcome in federal court may still be welcome and viable in state court.

Both federal and state tolling rules may allow these claims to be brought in state courts, and the parties must understand how state tolling rules and cross-jurisdictional tolling affect the viability of claims. Whether absent class members whose claims may have expired while the federal class action was pending can refile their class claims in state court depends on how courts may interpret the fundamental Supreme Court tolling decisions, state law, cross-jurisdictional tolling, and state-specific saving statutes--all of which are in flux.

Listen as this panel of experienced class action counsel discusses the effect of Ramirez, how tolling operates in the class action context, and why understanding tolling in class actions is more important than ever.

1. Overview of federal class action tolling
2. Impact of Ramirez
3. Identifying which claims are and are not tolled by filing of class action
4. Tolling effect of class actions when multiple state law and federal claims are asserted in the class action
5. Effect of no certification, obviously defective class actions, decertification
6. Application of tolling to statutes of repose

The panel will review these and other pivotal issues:

• What is the scope of China Agritech Inc. v. Resh?
• Does a cause of action exist if no one has standing to assert it?
• How do cross-jurisdictional tolling rules affect the analysis?
• What are best strategies for plaintiffs and for defendants?