Raleigh, NC – Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is pleased to announce that, along with co-counsel at Paul Hastings LLP, it filed an amicus brief on behalf of the African-American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The brief was filed in support of Navy Federal Credit Union, who is defending on appeal the trial court’s order striking class allegations in a case involving issues of significant interest to the credit union industry as a whole.

The friend-of-the-court brief was filed in November by Raleigh partner Steve Carey, who leads the firm’s Appellate Group, and attorney Aislinn Klos. Associate Jack Belk also provided valuable insight and assistance. The team served the client on a pro bono basis. 

The primary issue in the appeal is whether the plaintiffs can move forward with their discrimination-based case as a class action lawsuit. On behalf of AACUC, Parker Poe and Paul Hastings argued that the plaintiffs' class theory is based on improper and impermissible assumptions drawn from data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The team also explained that the plaintiffs' theory improperly focused on isolated information about lending outcomes and ignored broader demographics about the types of borrowers served by credit unions like Navy Federal. In this way, the team wrote, the theory misses both the "forest and the trees."

The Fourth Circuit is currently reviewing the appeal and expected to hear arguments in the case in early 2025.

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Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP has more than 275 lawyers in eight offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington, DC. The firm provides legal counsel to many of the largest companies and local governments in the Southeast.

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