Counsel seeking to certify a class must demonstrate to the
court, among other things, counsel's own adequacy as a
representative of the class. As a recent Seventh Circuit opinion
instructs, counsel seeking such a finding would do well to avoid
alienating the court even before the certification stage.
In Gomez v. St. Vincent Health, the Seventh
Circuit affirmed the denial of class certification on the sole
ground that proposed class counsel was inadequate. The underlying
action involved a healthcare system's failure to provide
employees who left their jobs with timely COBRA notices regarding
their right to extend their health insurance coverage at their own
cost.
The plaintiffs' counsel had previously filed a similar
lawsuit, on behalf of different named plaintiffs, in the Southern
District of Indiana. The district court in the previous case
declined to certify the class for multiple reasons, including the
inadequacy of class counsel. Rather than pursue an appeal,
