Preventing the Subversion of Devlin v. Scardelletti

Authors

Brian Wolfman, Georgetown University Law CenterFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-25-2005

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.

Comments

Reproduced with permission from Class Action Litigation Report, 6 CLASS 453 (June 25, 2005). Copyright 2005 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com

Publication Citation

6 Class Action Litig. Rep. (BNA), at 453-458 (June 25, 2005)

Scholarly Commons Citation

Wolfman, Brian, "Preventing the Subversion of Devlin v. Scardelletti" (2005). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1075.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1075