Judge Refuses Class Action Status for Suit Claiming ‘Time Bomb’ in Law Firm Software
A federal judge in New Jersey has refused to grant class action status to a lawsuit that claims law firm management software contained a hidden “time bomb” that caused it to shut down.
The suit by New York intellectual property law firm Kalow & Springut claimed that software made by Commence Corp. stopped working on March 20, 2006—at Kalow and thousands of other law firms, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. The suit alleges Commence designed the software to fail so users would be forced to buy upgrades.
Commence provided free patches for users with newer versions of its software, the story says. Kalow & Springut had an older version, and the firm says it had to pay $15,000 for a replacement.
U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson said the plaintiffs lawyers had not analyzed whether the consumer fraud law of New Jersey or some other state should govern the suit, and as a result they had failed to show that common questions of law predominate.
The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Peter Pearlman, told the New Jersey Law Journal that he would address the issue and he was sure he would be able to obtain class certification.
