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1 Thomas E. Willging & Emergy G. Lee III, The Impact of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005: Third Interim Report to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules: Summary 1 (2007)

handle is hein.congcourts/fjresebr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FJC RESEARCH BRIEF
ISSUE No. 1                  FEDERAL JUDICIAL CENTER                          APRIL 2007
The Impact of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005: Third Interim Report
to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules
Thomas E. Willging, Emery G. Lee III
2007, 26 pages
available on line only
This is the third in a series of interim reports that the Federal Judicial Center has prepared for the
Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules on the impact of the Class Action Fairness
Act of 2005 (CAFA) (Pub. L. 109-2, 119 Stat. 4 (2005)) on the resources of the federal courts. The
Advisory Committee, acting in consultation with the chairs of the Judicial Conference committees
on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System, Court Administration and Case Management,
Judicial Resources, Federal-State Jurisdiction, and Rules of Practice and Procedure, had asked the
Center to perform this study.
The overall study is designed to examine three phases of class action activity: filing and removal
of cases; litigation in the district courts; and appellate review. This report presents preliminary data
on the number, frequency, and types of class actions filed in or removed to federal district courts
from July 1, 2001, through June 30,2006. The report defines class action activity to include original
federal filings and removed cases in which class action status is sought at any stage of the pro-
ceedings. The study includes the 88 districts that use the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing
(CM/ECF) system and have created electronic docketing records for cases filed as of July 1, 2001.
These districts accounted for 98% of the civil cases filed in federal district courts during that time.
The study found a 46% increase in class action activity in the study districts as a whole in the
most recent six-month period for which data are available (January-June 2006) compared to the
first six months of the study period (July-December 2001). Much of that increase was in federal
question cases, especially labor class actions, and thus not attributable to the effects of CAFA. In the
sixteen months since CAFA went into effect on February 18, 2005, however, the study found a sub-
stantial increase in class action activity based on diversity of citizenship jurisdiction. Given that one
of the legislation's primary purposes was to expand the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts, it
is likely that much of this observed increase in diversity removals and, of particular interest, original
proceedings in the federal courts is attributable to CAFA.
More specifically, data from the 88 courts show the following:
* There was an increase of 364 diversity filings and removals in the last twelve months for
which data is available (July 2005 through June 2006) compared to the last calendar year
prior to CAFA's effective date (2004).
* The average monthly numbers of diversity class actions increased from a pre-CAFA level of
27.0 cases per month to a post-CAFA level of 53.4 cases per month-or an increase of 26.4
diversity class action filings and removals per month.
* The observed increase in diversity cases resulted from both an increase in the number of
removals and an even greater increase in the number of original proceedings. In the last

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