Category Archives: Class Actions

ABA Issues Formal Ethics Opinion on Prosecutors Who Rent Out their Letterhead to Debt Collectors

by Deepak Gupta Since its inception, this blog has covered the pernicious practice of prosecutors who rent out their name and authority to private for-profit debt collectors. As readers may recall, these debt collectors use official-looking letterhead to threaten consumers who have accidentally bounced checks for household purchases  — consumers are told they'll face criminal […]

Wasserman Article on Global Solutions to Mass Torts

Rhonda Wasserman of Pittsburgh has written Future Claimants and the Quest for Global Peace, Forthcoming in 64 Emory Law Journal (2014),  Here's the abstract: In the mass tort context, the defendant typically seeks to resolve all of the claims against it in one fell swoop.  But the defendant’s interest in global peace is often unattainable in […]

More From Mullenix on Aggregate Litigation

On Monday, Brian posted a link to Linda Mullenix's article, Ending Class Actions as We Know Them.  But Professor Mullenix has more thoughts on aggregate litigation, appearing in Reflections of a Recovering Aggregationist, 15 U. Nev. L. Rev., (2014 Forthcoming).  Here's the abstract: The past fifty years have experienced a radical reformation of civil litigation in […]

A Comment on Comments on the CFPB Arbitration Study

by Jeff Sovern The CFPB Monitor blog has a post titled Industry trade groups urge OMB not to approve CFPB arbitration telephone survey about a filing by the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association and the Financial Services Roundtable. They "strongly recommend that OMB not approve the proposal because it will not produce information of practical utility […]

Media Matters Talks to Paul Bland about Class Actions and Justice

Co-blogger Paul Bland, the new Executive Director of Public Justice, was recently interviewed by Media Matters.  In an engaging interview in his office Paul discusses his singular career as a champion for consumer rights, the importance of class actions as a means of challenging corporate wrondoing, and the pro-corporate bent of the Roberts Court. It's a […]

NACA adopts Third Edition of its Standards and Guidelines for Litigating and Settling Class Actions

by Stephen Gardner The Board of Directors of the National Association of Consumer Advocates adopted the Third Edition of its Standards and Guidelines for Litigating and Settling Class Actions on May 13 (Download here), continuing a tradition of setting high standards for the ways consumer class actions are handled that began with the first Guidelines adopted in […]

Tidmarsh Article on Auctioning Class Settlements

Jay Tidmarsh of Notre Dame has written Auctioning Class Settlements, forthcoming in the William & Mary Law Review. Here's the abstract: Although they promise better deterrence at a lower cost, class actions are infected with problems that can keep them from delivering on this promise. One of these problems occurs when the agents for the […]

Should substantive due process stop courts from enforcing excessive penalties in consumer contracts?

For years now, some have argued that if substantive due process prohibits disproportionately large punitive damages awards against major corporations, it also should stop courts from enforcing excessive contract damages against consumers. See Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Are Credit Card Late Fees Unconstitutional?, 15 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 457, 460 (2006). Two Ninth Circuit judges […]

AARP, Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Consumer Attorneys of California file amicus briefs in Ninth Circuit Supple appeal

I recently discussed the Ninth Circuit appeal in Cabral v. Supple, a fascinating case about consumer fraud class actions, infomercials, snake oil, the placebo effect, and behavioral economics. Our opening brief was filed last week. Yesterday, three organizations filed amicus briefs supporting us: AARP focused on the effect of marketing techniques aimed at making false health-benefit claims to […]

Snake oil, the placebo effect, and status quo bias: Should evidence of “satisfied customers” defeat a consumer fraud class action?

by Deepak Gupta Should a defendant in a consumer fraud class action be able to defeat certification through evidence that its customers say they are "satisfied," even when the the allegation is that the product is snake oil?  Or would that transform the placebo effect into a defense to fraud? That's the question the Ninth […]