Named Plaintiff Depositions in Employment Class Actions: Best Practices for Plaintiff and Defense Counsel

This CLE course will prepare employment litigators to depose or defend depositions of named plaintiffs in class and collective actions. The panel will outline techniques for adequately preparing and questioning named plaintiffs and offer strategies to leverage deposition testimony during certification, settlement, and trial.

When deposing named plaintiffs in employment class or collective actions, the parties have opposing goals. Defense counsel aims to uncover evidence showing that the plaintiff is unable to represent the interests of the entire class of employees adequately and to identify differences between the named plaintiff and the proposed class in an attempt to defeat commonality and typicality. Plaintiffs' counsel aims to bolster the alleged facts and demonstrate how the named plaintiffs share common legal and factual issues with and can adequately represent the proposed class.

The named plaintiffs' answers to the deposition questions will allow both counsel to better prepare for the next steps in the case by assessing strengths or weaknesses as they relate to adequacy, typicality, and commonality.

Listen as our authoritative panel of employment class litigators discusses practical techniques for taking and defending depositions of named plaintiffs in employment class or collective actions and strategies for using deposition testimony during certification, settlement, and trial.