2 Years Later, Lawyers Think Rule 23 Amendments Are Working - Mostly

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Two years after the federal courts amended class action law, the legal community had positive feedback—for the most part.

That's according to a report released this month by Western Alliance Bank, host of the annual Class Action Law Forum, the first in the nation to address the impact of the 2018 amendments to the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. The most significant changes focused on electronic notice of class action settlements and “bad faith” objectors.

The report found that 81% of lawyers, judges and claims administrators had favorable views about the amendments, up from 76% two years ago, with 80% saying the electronic notice provision had a positive impact.

“There was broad support from the judges and attorneys, and they all strongly agreed the amendments had improved the process,” said Francesca Castagnola, senior managing director at Western Alliance Bank. “The most relevant or important one to both the judiciary and the attorneys was the ability to do notice by electronic means because having that modern communication method is really important and people might move but they don’t move their email address so everybody feels that has widened or broadened the reach to get in front of potential claimants. Also, I think the front loading of the approval process and forcing the parties to address flaws and disagreements in settlement proposals early on, I think everybody had that as a good takeaway.”