A settlement class is certified in connection with a proposed resolution. Under Amchem, all Rule 23 requirements apply except trial manageability, since the class will not be tried.
Approval requires preliminary approval, notice, a fairness hearing, and a finding that the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate.
Alternative Names:
Settlement-Only Class, Rule 23(e) Class
Why it Matters?
Settlement classes let defendants achieve global peace including claims that could not be certified for trial, which is their principal value. The tradeoff is that courts apply heightened scrutiny precisely because there is no adversarial testing of the class definition, and Amchem and Ortiz demonstrate that intra-class conflicts, particularly between present and future claimants, can defeat approval entirely.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Do all Rule 23 requirements apply to a settlement class?
What defeats settlement class approval?
