Plaintiffs May Be Deposed on Class Certification Issues, Judge Rules in Mortgage Reinsurance Action

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge has refused to bar defendants in a mortgage reinsurance fraud case from deposing plaintiffs on issues related to class certification, holding that there is no practical method for limiting the scope of the depositions given the substantial overlap between merits discovery and class certification discovery at this point in the action.

In a Feb. 11 order, Magistrate Judge Barbara A. McAuliffe of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California further noted that because the court may revisit the issue of class certification at any time in the case, issues …