An Allegheny County judge has certified a class of plaintiffs who allege their title insurance companies engaged in a scheme in which they failed to charge discounted rates as required by a state-approved manual.

Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. rejected arguments by the insurance companies that the plaintiffs must show justifiable reliance, and that it would be too difficult to obtain the necessary records for all 800,000 class members.

“Plaintiffs' pursuit of this theory supports a class action because the questions of law and fact with respect to litigating plaintiffs' theory are common to each member of the class,” Wettick wrote. “I do not find merit to the title insurance companies' contention that plaintiffs can only recover by showing that the defendants' title agents engaged in deceptive conduct.”