Bo Phillips spoke during this webinar hosted by Strafford.
In the seminal Comcast Corp. v. Behrend decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the damages model that plaintiffs rely on to demonstrate predominance must measure only those damages connected to the plaintiffs’ theory of liability.
Since Comcast, the lower federal courts have applied a greater degree of scrutiny to proposed classwide damages models, and some district courts have denied certification in the absence of evidence of classwide damages. Methods to calculate classwide damages include surveys, event studies, full refund and price premiums, regression analysis, and others.
Challenges to these damages models increasingly arise at the certification stage of the litigation as opposed to summary judgment or trial. Counsel for both plaintiffs and defendants need to understand these damage models and how to use expert witnesses to testify about the plaintiff's damage calculations and how to attack the plaintiff’s damage models.
The panel of plaintiff and defendant class action litigators reviewed the Comcast Corp. v. Behrend decision and the requirement that plaintiffs demonstrate predominance only as to those damages connected to the plaintiffs’ theory of liability. The panel analyzed the different classwide damage models and how to effectively use expert witnesses to prove or attack the plaintiffs’ damages.
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