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Supreme Court Limits Forum Shopping with Plavix Lawsuit Decision

By Janice G. Inman

Class action plaintiffs often aggregate their claims to sue a defendant based on that defendant's tortious course of conduct, on the basis that it has adversely affected all plaintiffs in a similar fashion. That's basically the textbook definition of a class-action lawsuit. But on June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court upended years of jurisprudence to hand corporations a gift: a far more stringent definition of specific jurisdiction that will force plaintiffs to bring suit in multiple state courts rather than join their claims to those in far-flung jurisdictions.

In Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, 2017 U.S. LEXIS 3873 (U.S. 6/19/17), the court held that a corporation that engages in a nationwide course of conduct cannot be sued in a state court by anyone not injured within that jurisdiction, unless the corporation has significant contacts there, such as conducting much of its business therein. Eight justices formed the majority, with only one, Sonya Sotomayor, dissenting.

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