Court Insures Allstate Against Unsound Trial Plan Mayhem

Allstate Insurance Company "insured" a major victory last week in an off the clock class action pending in Los Angeles Superior Court, vindicating employers' argument that plaintiffs cannot simply intone the magical incantation of "statistical sampling" as a means of collective proof in a class action. Rather, plaintiffs must proffer a detailed and manageable trial plan that relies on sound statistical science. Likening Plaintiff's trial plan to a house built on a poor foundation, Judge John Shepard Wiley rejected the statistically unsound trial plan because it would be "an enduring source of grief."

After almost nine years of litigation, Judge Wiley granted Allstate's motion to decertify both an off-the-clock and wage statement class because none of the multiple trial plans suggested by Plaintiff complied with the requirements in the California Supreme Court's 2014 decision in Duran v. U.S. Bank National Association or last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ty