As the legal landscape evolves in response to a changing nation, so does class action litigation. West Virginia Managing Partner Marc Williams, who handles complex cases for defendants including class actions, said that he has seen more class action lawsuits being filed in state court rather than the federal system lately. The federal system’s rules have been “a little more stringent,” but “in West Virginia, that’s changing," he told WVNews.

“Our Supreme Court of Appeals is actually changing the way class actions are dealt with, and it happens a case at a time, over time. It’s not something that happens rapidly. But over the last four or five years, our Supreme Court of Appeals has tended to shift how class actions are interpreted and are handled to track the federal system. So that’s one component.

“The second aspect is what we would call national class actions, and that would be a class action regarding all states. It would be filed in one spot. It could be filed in West Virginia, as an example. But then the class of people impacted would be nationwide," Williams said.

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