MassBar Beat Podcast

People don't always realize that claims for G.L. c. 93A violations brought on behalf of a putative class are not certified under Mass. R. Civ. P. 23. Nope. Instead, they're certified under chapter 93A's special class-action provision -- G.L. c. 93A, § 9(2) -- which the Supreme Judicial Court has said does not require a showing of predominance or superiority (although the trial court does possess a degree of discretion to consider those issues).¹ And, after Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P.A. v. Allstate Insurance Co.,² that might be the case in federal court too. (This is undecided. The only court that appears to have been asked to decide it declined to do so.)³

The United States is one of only 11 countries in the world that permits children to be sentenced to a term of life imprisonment without hope of eventual release. However, no cases can currently be found outside the United States where such a sentence has actually been imposed on a juvenile.¹ In fact, a 2006 United Nations resolution calling for the abolition of life sentences without the possibility of parole for children and teenagers was passed by a vote of 185 to one, with the U.S. as the sole dissenter.²