The cost of settling workplace class-action lawsuits reached a record high in 2021, defying expectations that the COVID-19 pandemic would decrease the size and reduce the number of payouts, according to a new report by the Seyfarth Shaw law firm in Chicago.
“The plaintiffs’ bar capitalized on a recovering economy and aligned priorities with the new Biden Administration to secure a record financial haul in 2021,” stated the author, Seyfarth partner Gerald L. Maatman Jr. “As the defense based on arbitration agreements with class action waivers faces increased attacks across the country, employers can look at this past year as a precursor to new legal challenges and an explosion of class and collective actions in 2022.”
Seyfarth’s 18th annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report says it examined a record number of 1,607 class action rulings in 2021. The analysis includes all rulings in the federal and state court systems.
The law firm reports the aggregate amount of the top 10 private monetary settlements in each of five categories of workplace class action lawsuits; employment discrimination, wage and hour, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, statutory private actions and governmental employment. Altogether, the total of the top ten settlements in each of the categories was $3.62 billion in 2021, surpassing the previous high of $2.72 billion set in 2017 and dwarfing the $1.58 billion paid out in settlements in 2020.
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