WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 13, 2025) – NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case LabCorp v. Luke Davis, et al. at the United States Supreme Court. The case asks whether class action lawsuits in federal courts can include individuals that have suffered no legal injury. NFIB argues that the Ninth Circuit’s reading of the requirements for a class action outlined in the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 (Rule 23) is unlawful and will have a disastrous impact on small businesses faced with class action litigation.

“In class action lawsuits, the outcome of the case is often determined by the size of the class because as the plaintiff count grows, so does the financial burden for defendants,” said Beth Milito, Vice President and Executive Director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “Most small businesses do not have in-house legal teams at their disposal, nor do they have the resources to afford costly attorney fees. Frivolous class action lawsuits are already a nearly impossible financial undertaking for a small business owner. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling that uninjured individuals can be included in a class action, thereby inflating the size of the class, will only further stack the odds against small businesses.”

NFIB’s amicus brief argues three main points: 1) The Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of Rule 23 is inconsistent with the constraints imposed by Article III of the Constitution and the Rules Enabling Act (REA); 2) Including uninjured individuals in a class creates significant differences between the class representative and the class as a whole, making it impossible to satisfy typicality, one of the four threshold requirements for a class action outlined in Rule 23; and 3) Including uninjured individuals in a class action imposes significant harm on defendants such as small businesses.

The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.