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Practice Tip: Products Class Action Incentive Awards

By Ronald J. Levine and Aviva Wein
September 29, 2009

Class actions have become a common fixture for product liability practitioners. Anyone who gets involved in prosecuting or defending a class action will quickly recognize that seeking redress via a class action is fraught with its own particular difficulties in a rapidly changing area. This article discusses the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Rodriguez v. West Publishing Co., 563 F.3d 948 (9th Cir. 2009), that specifically considered the viability of incentive awards and their impact on the adequacy of class representatives.

In a typical litigation, and even in class action litigations, pre-answer dispositive motions may well be the first battleground on which plaintiff and defense counsel meet. If such a motion is not made, or is not granted, the plaintiff's subsequent motion for class certification will be the most significant motion facing defense counsel in a class action litigation.

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