Eric J. Knapp
Partner
An experienced class action litigator, Eric aggressively defends high-stakes, high-exposure class action matters involving alleged product defects, asserting a host of claims, including consumer protection statute violations, breach of warranty, and many more.
Eric represents and counsels some of the most reputable companies worldwide. His clients include automobile manufacturers and distributors, consumer product and appliance manufacturers, the food industry, and more. Eric is results-oriented and committed to achieving the best and most efficient resolution of his clients’ cases.
Key Matters
Some of the experience represented below may have been handled at a previous firm.
- Defeated class certification in a sprawling nationwide class action spanning over eight years alleging certain types of wheel and tire combinations equipped on vehicles were defectively designed. The court ruled, among other things, that individualized issues of causation defeated predominance.
- Obtained summary judgment for an automobile distributor in a class action alleging a “safety” defect and asserting an array of warranty and consumer fraud claims. The Court also denied plaintiff’s pending motion for class certification as moot.
- Defended an automobile distributor in class action asserting breach of warranty, unfair competition, and fraudulent concealment. Class certification was denied for, among other reasons, lack of commonality and the remaining individual case was dismissed with prejudice.
- Defended one of the nation’s largest automobile manufacturers in one of the first–and still largest–nationwide class actions ever to go to trial, asserting automotive “concealed defect” claims under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law, and other causes of action
- Defended a leading U.S. manufacturer of confectionery and related grocery products in an FLSA/California Labor Code opt-in class action alleging the company’s sales representatives were improperly classified as exempt from overtime