Seventh Circuit Says "Smallness" Is Not A Bar To Class Certification

In what it describes as an effort to advance the law of class certification, the Seventh Circuit last week issued a decision, written by Judge Posner, that many would say does just the opposite.

In Hughes v. Kore of Indiana Enterprise, Inc., the court granted plaintiff's Rule 23(f) petition "in order to further the development of class action law . . . regarding issues of notice in cases in which the potential damages per class member are very slight, and the suitability of class action treatment of such cases." At bottom, the decision seems to stand for the proposition that when damages are extraordinarily small — so small that administrative costs would exceed the damages themselves– certify the class by providing only publication notice and giving the damages to charity.