Personal Jurisdiction in Class Actions After Bristol-Myers Squibb: How Ford May Foreshadow the Supreme Court’s Answer
Federal circuit courts have recently split over applying Bristol-Myers Squibb Company v. Superior Court (BMS) to class actions. The Supreme Court’s watershed personal jurisdiction opinion in 2017 held that courts can only exercise specific personal jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims that arise out of or relate to defendants’ conduct in the forum state. But BMS did not resolve whether federal courts must find specific personal jurisdiction over absent class members in addition to named class representatives. Nor did the Court’s more…