Drafting Blow-Up Provisions in Class Action Settlement Agreements

This CLE course will discuss how to structure and then draft effective blow-up terms, best practices for maintaining their confidentiality if that would be of interest, and what types of terms are more likely to be deemed material to assess the settlement, and therefore, more likely to be disclosed.

Most class action settlements include a "blow-up" provision which permits defendants to terminate or alter settlement if the estimated exposure from litigation reaches a certain level. The structure and wording of blow-up terms, however, can vary depending on the type of settlement and goals it is trying to accomplish.

Defendants sometimes do not want class members privy to blow-up provisions, fearing that this knowledge will embolden class members to threaten to exclude themselves from settlement and provide them with excessive leverage. Thus, it is not unusual for courts to permit filing blow-out terms under seal or allow them to be designated confidential for "Attorneys Eyes Only."

Listen as this experienced panel of class action attorneys discusses the art and science of structuring and then drafting blow-up provisions in different types of class actions, the advantages of confidentiality, and how to stabilize settlement if the blow-up provisions must be disclosed.