The Ten Most Significant Class Action Cases Of 2014

Year-end lists are funny things. They take a sort-of arbitrary starting and stopping point, and then they cram a bunch of prejudices into a (usually) arbitrary number of items. And then people take them kind of seriously. But they can be handy ways of catching trends one did not see before. And in a year that has seen the beginning of a new debate over the shape of Rule 23, looking at the trends in caselaw can be important. This year's cases include some pro-plaintiff and some pro-defendant, and some hard to quantify. But most of them are notable because they highlight one (or more) of the key debates facing class action practice in the middle of the 'Teens. So, without further ado, and in order only of jurisdiction: