The number of class-action rulings and dollar amount ofsettlements reached soared in 2017, according to Seyfarth ShawLLP’s 14th annual Workplace ClassAction Litigation Report, and settlements reached in 2018 looklikely to continue to cost employers more.

According to HRDive, not only did the number of class-action rulings hit arecord, at 1,408, but wage and hour settlements alone accounted for acombined $1.2 billion out of the total of $2.72 billion.

Says the report, “[T]he events of the past year in the workplaceclass action world demonstrate that the array of litigation issuesfacing businesses are continuing to accelerate at a rapid pacewhile also undergoing significant change.” This is despite the“transition to new leadership in the White House in 2017,” itadds.

In 2017, four trends in workplace class action litigation tookthe spotlight.

First is the “dramatic” rise in the monetary value of the topworkplace class action settlements.

Second, federal and state courts put out numerous favorableclass action certification rulings for the plaintiffs, but“evolving case law precedents and new defense approaches resultedin better outcomes for employers in opposing class certificationrequests.”

Third, filings and settlements of government enforcementlitigation in 2017 didn’t do an about-face from the Obama-erapro-worker stance. Instead, government enforcement litigationactually increased in 2017.

However, in 2018, it looks likely that that trend will changeunder the Trump administration’s appointees and direction, but thatdoesn’t necessarily mean that a lack of government litigation onthe behalf of workers will mean a reduction in worker challenges.Instead, “the ultimate effect … may well prompt the privateplaintiffs’ class action bar to ‘fill the void’ and expand thevolume of workplace litigation pursued against employers over thecoming year as the DOL and the EEOC adjust their litigationenforcement activities.”

Fourth, more pro-business decisions by the Supreme Court,coupled with the appointment of Neil Gorsuch and key decisions tobe delivered in 2018, look likely to “change the class actionplaying field in profound ways…. [L]itigation dynamics may well bereshaped in ways that further change the playbook for prosecutingand defending class actions.”

The report also expects more decertification wins for employers,who won 63 percent of wage and hour decertification rulings lastyear that was up nearly 20 percent from 2016.