​Jeremy Stephenson (Of Counsel-Charlotte) secured a reversal in the North Carolina Supreme Court of the trial court’s class certification made in a consumer fraud case against Wilson Elser’s client, an auto dealership event promoter. The plaintiffs claim to have received a promotional mailing from a car dealership that was allegedly deceptive and misled recipients into believing they had won a car or a significant cash award. The trial court issued a class certification order, and the plaintiffs brought a class action complaint against our client, the dealership and other parties connected to the sales promotion. Jeremy argued that the trial court’s certification order failed to comply with many aspects of the multi-step certification criteria. The Supreme Court found the certification order internally inconsistent regarding class definitions and vacated the order. “Specifically, the trial court’s order used one class definition to analyze the certification criteria, then changed the definition when actually certifying the class.” The rare, published opinion, a significant victory for businesses and civil defendants, looks at issues created by what the Supreme Court deemed “the mismatch in class definitions” in this matter, such as potential conflicts of interest and potential inefficiencies in the class. Diandria Rabsatt (Paralegal-Charlotte) assisted on the case.​