In a ruling reverberating through the class action bar, the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a controversial procedural tool that allowed plaintiffs attorneys to appeal class certification orders by dismissing their own case.

In an 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled plaintiffs in a class action over Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video-game consoles should not have been allowed to automatically appeal a class certification order by voluntarily dismissing their claims.

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Microsoft was represented in the case by Jeffrey Fisher, co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School.