Since the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) was enacted, many federal courts have shown a distinct unwillingness to effect congressional intent that large, interstate class actions be litigated in federal court. Most frequently, courts have imposed obstacles to defendants satisfying the requirement that the amount in controversy in a given class action exceed $5 million.
Some federal courts, led by district courts in the Second Circuit, have used a different method to rid their dockets of consumer class actions. After holding that the plaintiff lacks viable class allegations (either by dismissing the class allegations or denying a class certification motion), those courts have remanded cases on the basis that federal jurisdiction under CAFA has vanished. In many cases, the remanded plaintiff is free to engage in wide-ranging discovery, and file a class certification motion that may be duplicative of what the plaintiff filed in federal court.
