Class Actions

Class action cases are one of the more complex litigation matters for plaintiffs, defendants, and courts. Created to improve the efficiency of the legal process, class actions group a large number of individualized claims together into one representative lawsuit.

Courtroom experience that earns results, even without a trial

In the past five years alone, Wagstaff & Cartmell has recovered more than $600 million in class action cases, locally and nationally. We have been part of the leadership group prosecuting major class actions across the country with hundreds of millions of dollars at issue, and we have also successfully defended class actions with millions of dollars at stake.

We use our experience on both sides of the docket to anticipate opposing counsel and propose strategies for the best possible outcomes.

Our trial lawyers represent both plaintiffs and defendants in class action lawsuits involving a variety of subject matters, including antitrust, securities, consumer, and products liability actions. We have the experience and resources to prosecute or defend class action matters for clients across a wide range of industries.

We also have successfully represented individual members of class actions who “opt out” of a class settlement to pursue their individual claims.

SIGNIFICANT REPRESENTATIONS

$590.5 Million Settlement in Private Equity Antitrust Case

Attorney: Tyler W. Hudson

Working with several law firms from across the country, Ty Hudson and other Wagstaff & Cartmell attorneys played a pivotal role in securing a $590 million combined class action settlement, contingent on federal court approval, of antitrust claims against seven private equity firms, including Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs, K.K.R., Silver Lake, and TPG. The plaintiffs – former shareholders of companies acquired by the private equity firms – argued that the defendants illegally colluded to lower prices of certain corporate acquisitions.

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 $10 Million Settlement for Environmental Property Damage

Attorneys: Brian J. Madden, Thomas P. Cartmell, Tom Wagstaff, Jr., Diane Watkins, and Joan Toomey

Wagstaff & Cartmell, on behalf of a class of Northwest Missouri landowners, reached a $10 million class action settlement with an engineering firm. The case involved allegations that Prime Tanning, a St. Joseph tannery, distributed tannery sludge containing hexavalent chromium produced from its tanning operations to landowners to use as fertilizer in four Missouri counties from 1983 through 2009.

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$20.25 million Class Action Settlement In re Potash Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Ill.)

Attorneys: Eric D. Barton, Tyler W. Hudson, and Adam Davis

Wagstaff & Cartmell represented a class of indirect purchasers, mostly farmers and agribusinesses, who obtained a class action settlement, approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in the total amount of $20.25 million from the major North American and foreign producers of potash fertilizer.

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Read more about our cases and our results.