ARTICLE · 09 MARCH 2022

A Pandemic Of Litigation: Prisons And COVID-19 Class Actions

Ellis & Winters

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Much like COVID-19 itself, a pandemic of class-action litigation has spread across this nation between two age-old foes: prisons, and their prisoners.

United StatesLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration

Much like COVID-19 itself, a pandemic of class-action litigation has spread across this nation between two age-old foes: prisons, and their prisoners. Unlike most of the litigation arising from COVID-19 across the country, prisoners are taking a unique legal position: the failure of the government to take precautions against COVID-19 is unconstitutional. In cases filed by prisoners seeking collective relief from the rapid spread of COVID-19 within their respective prisons, however, motions for class certification have revealed complicated answers to questions that appear, at first blush, to have simple resolutions: whether classes of prisoners are "ascertainable" and whether, in the context of a pandemic, prisoners can satisfy the commonality requirement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.

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