State AGs Filing Copycat Class-Action Suits

Companies are being hit with a one-two punch as state attorneys general are increasingly filing parens patriae actions that duplicate class-action lawsuits. Rather than pursuing claims for civil penalties that are distinct from the relief sought in private class action, the AGs are filing copycat actions, and in some cases even handing over cases to the class-action plaintiffs’ lawyers, anointed “special assistant attorneys general” for the suits. Supreme Court justices recently asked about the practice during oral arguments in Mississippi ex rel. Hood v. AU Oprtonics Corp., and a district court in New Mexico struck down an action by the state’s AG that would have allowed “’double recovery.’”