Last month we launched NoticeAssist, the first-of-its-kind, free software tool to help practitioners draft clear and effective class notices.  In a moment, I’ll tell you what it can do for you.  But, some of you may be wondering - why software and why now? 

In 2020, a panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals stunned the class action bar when it ruled in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions., LLC, 975 F.3d 1244 (11th Cir. 2020), that service awards for class representatives are categorically unlawful. Service awards are financial payments to class representatives that have long been used to acknowledge their service to the class. In April of 2024, the Seventh Circuit split with the Eleventh Circuit when it allowed service awards.

In June, Impact Fund filed an amicus brief on behalf of thirty-six other public interest law organizations in San Diego Tenant Union et al. v. San Diego Housing Commission et al., in the California Court of Appeal. Our brief asked the Court to affirm the availability of catalyst fees to plaintiffs' counsel in successful public interest lawsuits because nonprofit legal services organizations rely upon the fee-shifting provisions of catalyst fees to undertake important litigation. “Catalyst fees” are a legal mechanism by which defendants pay plaintiffs attorneys’ fees when plaintiffs’ lawsuit induces defendants to provide the relief sought by plaintiffs—in other words, when plaintiffs’ lawsuit “catalyzes” defendants’ change in conduct.