The Federal Arbitration Act provides for motions to confirm (9 U.S.C. § 9) or to vacate or modify (9 U.S.C. §§ 10, 11) an arbitration award, but the motions are not all subject to the same deadline. A motion to confirm may be filed within a year after the award is made, whereas the window…
Author: Valerie Sanders
A Debtor by Any Other Name? Court Certifies Question to Florida Supreme Court
Florida law provides that a UCC-1 financing statement is “seriously misleading” if it does not include the debtor’s correct name, unless “a search of the records of the filing office under the debtor’s correct name, using the filing office’s standard search logic, if any, would disclose” the financing statement notwithstanding the misnomer. But how much…
Court Affirms Order Unsealing “Unguarded Emails”
The Eleventh Circuit reiterated the importance of access to judicial proceedings—including, in the case at hand, “unguarded emails expressing personal opinions,” in Callahan v. United Network for Organ Sharing, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 34201 (11th Cir. Nov. 17, 2021). The underlying dispute arose from a revised organ donation policy approved by the defendant United Network…
Dual Jobs and Dueling Opinions: Divided Panel Reverses Summary Judgment in Employer’s Favor in FLSA Case
A divided panel of the Eleventh Circuit reversed summary judgment for the employer on an employee’s Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) claims in Rafferty v. Denny’s, Inc., 13 F.4th 1166 (11th Cir. 2021). Lindsay Rafferty, who had been a Denny’s server, claimed that the restaurant violated the FLSA in paying her sub-minimum wage for time…
FDCPA Standing Case To Be Reheard En Banc
The full court will rehear Hunstein v. Preferred Collection & Mgmt. Svcs., Inc., in which a panel of the court determined that a consumer had standing to challenge under the FDCPA a debt collector’s provision of information to a third-party mail service. You can read our prior post on the case here.
Get Back to Where You Once Belonged? Court Affirms Dismissal for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction and in Light of Forum Selection Clause
In Don’t Look Media LLC v. Fly Victor Ltd., 999 F.3d 1284 (11th Cir. June 4, 2021), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of RICO and state-law claims against an English company and its directors and officers for lack of personal jurisdiction and in light of the forum selection clause included in the parties’ contract….
Eleventh Circuit Affirms Approval of (Almost) All of Equifax Data Breach Settlement
In In re: Equifax, Inc. Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig. (Huang v. Equifax, Inc.), 2021 WL 2250845 (11th Cir. June 3, 2021), the Eleventh Circuit upheld the district court’s approval of a class settlement arising out of the Equifax data breach – except for the incentive awards to the class representatives, as to which the…
Class Claims for Declaratory and Supplemental Relief Remanded to State Court
In Mack v. USAA Casualty Insurance Co., 2021 WL 1572709 (11th Cir. Apr. 22, 2021), the Eleventh Circuit dismissed for lack of an Article III “case or controversy” a putative class action in which the plaintiff sought a declaration that his insurer’s adjustment of total loss claims violates Florida law and money damages as corresponding…
Debt Collector’s Provision of Consumer Information to Mail Service Is Actionable Under FDCPA
Note: on November 17, 2021, the court ordered that this case be reheard en banc. In Hunstein v. Preferred Collection & Management Services, Inc., 2021 WL 1556069 (11th Cir. Apr. 21, 2021), the Eleventh Circuit held that a consumer had standing to challenge a debt collector’s provision of the consumer’s information to a third-party mail…
Appeal on the Merits Untimely, and Costs Award to Defendant Under Rule 68 Affirmed, in FLSA Case
In a hectic end to 2020, we almost overlooked an interesting appellate procedure opinion affecting FLSA cases, Vasconcelo v. Miami Auto Max, Inc., 981 F.3d 934 (11th Cir. 2020). In Vasconcelo, the Eleventh Circuit dismissed an FLSA plaintiff’s appeal on the merits as untimely; affirmed the district court’s attorneys’ fees award, which awarded less than…