Class Actions

Not long after our founding, the National Law Journal referred to us as "one of Atlanta’s leading firms in high-profile, class action litigation." Our lawyers routinely served as lead counsel and as members of court-appointed steering committees in significant class actions.  Here are some examples: 

• Our firm represented a nationwide class of those whose homes were covered with hardboard siding prone to rot and deterioration. A jury found the siding was defective.  On the verge of a second trial, the case settled. Homeowners recovered more than $1 billion in replacement costs.
• We were appointed to represent 148 million Americans whose personal information was stolen in the Equifax data breach.  The federal court approved a settlement providing more than $1.3 billion in relief, by far the largest data breach settlement in history.
• Following a massive data breach at Home Depot, we served as co-lead counsel for the financial institutions that suffered harm.  The case settled for the largest such settlement in history.   
• We served on the steering committee in the Managed Care Litigation, which challenged billing abuses by the nation’s largest insurers.  Settlements totaled several billion dollars and required changed business practices.   The American Medical Association said the case would “raise the bar for the entire health insurance industry on fair and open business practices."
• Ralph Knowles was co-lead counsel in the Silicone Gel Breast Implant Litigation, which settled as a class action and recovered billions of dollars for women injured by breast implants.
• On behalf of a nationwide class of farmers, we sued an agricultural chemicals manufacturer for price fixing and recovered a substantial portion of the overcharges. 
• We were co-lead counsel in a national class action by merchants claiming they were overcharged by a major payment card processor.  The case settled for significant cash payments.
• A small business owner whose group health insurer dramatically raised her premiums asked us for help. We concluded the insurer had violated Georgia law, sued on behalf of all those impacted, and settled their claims after years of litigation.
• We were on the executive committee of the Castano Litigation Group, which launched a nationwide class action by smokers against the tobacco companies.  While an appellate court decertified a national class, our work paved the way for many successful state class actions and the historic settlement between the tobacco companies and the States.
• When a large manufacturer terminated its pension plan and shortchanged its employees, we brought a class action under ERISA, the federal law governing pension plans. The case was settled on the verge of trial and the employees received a supplemental distribution.
• We represented families with claims against the Tri-State Crematory, which rather than cremate their loved ones dumped and mishandled the bodies.  The case settled after class certification.
• We were co-lead counsel in an MDL asserting a large insurer violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act during its underwriting.  A settlement gave relief to a national class of 12 million people.