RECENT DEVLOPMENTS ON CLASS ACTIONS
Our United States Senate and House of Representatives have addressed a concern about state class actions. What these two bodies have suddenly discovered is that the only people benefiting from state class actions are the lawyers. Unfortunately, the politicians in Washington D.C. have failed to consider that the only way lawyers can handle certain types of cases is by filing for a class action. For example, if a company has defrauded hundreds of thousands of people out of $10.00, no lawyer can afford to handle one case at a time. The only way to handle this type of case is by way of a class action.
What the politicians in D.C. have proposed is a limit on class actions by requiring that these cases be filed in Federal Court, thereby pre-empting all State class actions. All this would do is allow companies to defraud the public with impunity.
Class actions are a useful tool in holding a company liable when they have harmed many individuals, but the harm is not that great. Without the attorney’s ability to file a state class action, many unscrupulous business practices would go unchecked.
