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Affirming the lower court's decision, the Second District California Court of Appeals has held that for purposes of class certification, a class of individuals who may have been videotaped and/or audiotaped during their job application process did not constitute a properly ascertainable class for purposes of class certification, nor was class treatment a superior method for handling a potential lawsuit brought by these applicants. Craven v. Diversified Financial Concepts, Inc., 2005 WL 3112177 (Cal.App. 2 Dist., Nov. 22).

Appellants John Craven and Jared Zubalsky, former employees of Respondent Diversified Concepts, Inc., an insurance and financial products marketing company, brought suit against Respondent after learning, subsequent to leaving the company, that during their application process they and other applicants may have been taped without their knowledge or consent. The application process consisted of a 2-day session, on the first day of which a group slide show presentation was shown, followed by a question-and-answer period and one-on-one interviews, and on the second day of which additional one-on-one interviews were conducted. Appellants alleged that one or both of these segments of the process were videotaped or audiotaped at various of Respondent's branches, and that they, and other class members, had neither been informed of this practice, nor asked to consent prior to its use. In fact, Respondent had inconsistent policies for the taping of applicants across its various California offices; while some offices never videotaped or audiotaped these sessions, some did so with applicants' consent, and others did so without consent, but for training purposes only, and not to focus on applicants. Appellants sued Respondent for violations of Penal Code section 632 and Business and Professions Code section 17200 on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, whom the complaint identified as the class of all persons “'who participated in the group slide presentations, the individual and/or one-on-one interviews as a part of their application for employment as a commissioned employee with [respondent] at one of its California offices for the past 4 years.'”