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Mar. 23, 2026

Down the rabbit hole and The Cheshire Cat grin: Presuming class action settlements are fair

When lawyers invoke the "presumption of fairness" in class-action settlements, they're citing a rule that traces back to a treatise with no footnote, no citation and no basis--just a ghost dressed up as precedent.

Curtis E.A. Karnow

Judge (ret.)

Judge Karnow is author of "Litigation in Practice" (2017) and current co-author of Weil & Brown et al., "California Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial" (Rutter).

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Down the rabbit hole and The Cheshire Cat grin: Presuming class action settlements are fair
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"All right," said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

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