Seventh Circuit Approves Both "Untimely" Interlocutory Appeal And Issue-Specific Class Certification

Class or collective actions form an increasingly important of international practice. In the pursuit and evolution of that practice, as we have posted before, tribunals elsewhere follow the development of U.S. class action law and practice.

George McReynolds, et al. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., No. 11-3639 (7^th Cir. 2012), presents a careful analysis of two recurring issues: first, whether the time limits for an interlocutory appeal of a class action order is statutory or jurisdiction on the one hand or something closer to discretionary on the other; and, second, what effect the Supreme Court's decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011), might have had on cases of huge numbers of potential class members.