Law360 Publishes Bentham’s Op-Ed Explaining Why Rumblings About the Decision in Gbarabe are Much Abuzz About Nothing

Law360 recently published an opinion piece written by Bentham’s Ralph Sutton and Julia Gewolb which explains the implications of Judge Illston’s decision in Gbarabe v. Chevron Corp., No. 14-cv-00173, 2016 WL 4154849 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 5, 2016) to compel a class action plaintiff to produce his confidential litigation funding agreement to the defendant. 

While some commentators have suggested that the decision will have a profound impact on the disclosure of litigation funders in class actions, Ralph and Julia explain that a defendant’s abilities to compel production of funding documents in class actions will instead turn, as they usually do, on the particular circumstances of the case. There is no reason to suspect that Gbarabe will lead to a flood of disclosure rulings in class action.  It is difficult to envision a scenario outside of the class action context where the presence of third-party funding would be relevant to the merits of the claims made in a case.