Breaking: New York Court Denies Class Action Certification in Author Solutions Lawsuit

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The filing for class action lawsuit status against Author Solutions taken by three authors in the Southern District Court of New York has been denied by Judge Denise Cote. The case was first filed in April 2013 by law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart on behalf of self-published authors Kelvin James, Mary Simmons and Jodi Foster. The class action suit details complaints of breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violations of US state statutes in various areas (Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart cited that these practices are violations of the California Business and Professions Code, and also violations of New York General Business Law).

Judge Denise Cote denied the class action certification when she delivered a 30 page document on Wednesday supporting her ruling. You can read the ruling here. Judge Cote’s (in the document) concludes that plaintiffs simply could not meet certification requirements and convince the court that Author Solutions had carried out widespread deception on authors as part of its business practices. Ultimately, that has to be the basis for the granting of class action certification in a lawsuit.

Dorsey & Whitney, on behalf of Author Solutions, has been strongly contesting the possible class action certification claiming earlier this year in its last filing that moves by lawyers at GSAS “amounts to nothing more than a hollow indictment of defendant Author Solutions […] and the entire supported self-publishing industry”. One line of defence by lawyers of Author Solutions was that class action certification (if granted by Judge Denise Cote) would “ignore evidence that the vast majority of AS’s customers are satisfied” with the services provided to them.

There are currently two other lawsuits pending against Author Solutions in the state of Indiana.

We will have more on this breaking story in the coming hours and days and we will examine Judge Cote’s documented ruling in detail.

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