Category Archives: Class Actions

The Equifax Data Breach and How Equifax is Stealthily Using Arbitration to Defeat Claims by Injured Consumers

by Jeff Sovern Scott posted yesterday about the Equifax data breach, which may end up being as significant a consumer scandal as the Wells Fargo unauthorized account fiasco.  As has been pointed out elsewhere, the disclosure of the Equifax announcement is extraordinary, coming on the same day Congress considered a bill to limit damages against […]

Another Story About How Class Actions Help and Arbitration Hurts Consumers, Military Families

From Paul Bland in HuffPo, CFPB Rule Fight Forces Senators to Choose: Military Families or Big Banks. Excerpt: When Gary Childress of Raleigh, North Carolina learned in July 2008 that he was being deployed to Iraq as part of his Army National Guard service, one of the things he did before reporting for duty was to […]

Pincus Rebuttal on the Value of Class Actions

by Jeff Sovern Last week, we reported on a Law360 article by Gary Mason finding benefits to class actions. Mayer Brown's Andrew Pincus has responded to the Law360 piece, also on Law360.   Here's an excerpt (with footnotes omitted): The critical question is whether class actions generally deliver relief to class members. The answer: They don’t. * […]

Ninth Circuit affirms cy pres-only settlement in In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation

Before jumping into my first post, I wanted to quickly introduce myself. I'm Mike Landis, Litigation Director for U.S. PIRG. (Obligatory disclaimer: my posts express my individual views only and not those of U.S. PIRG.) I've been a reader of this blog for sometime, and I'm excited to now participate as a contributor. My goal […]

Review of 2012 Class Actions Reported in Law360 Finds Benefits to Consumers

Gary E. Mason of Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP has written The Proper Measure Of The Value Of Class Actions for Law360.  Excerpt: Of the 118 cases initiated in 2012, 102 (or nearly 90 percent) had reached a final resolution by May 1, 2017, the date on which our study closed. Twenty-three of those cases (or […]

Marcus Article on the History of Class Actions 1981-1994

David Marcus of Arizona has written The History of the Modern Class Action, Part II: Litigation and Legitimacy, 1981-1994,  Fordham Law Review (forthcoming 2018). Here is the abstract: The first era of the modern class action began in 1966, with revisions to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It ended in 1980. […]

Another Conservative Strongly Supports CFPB Arb Rule

Chuck Muth has written If Congress Won’t Protect Us from Wells Fargo, then at Least Get Out of the Way. Here's an excerpt: Now, as a conservative I fully support the right of private individuals to freely and voluntarily contract with each other * * * But to require someone to sign away a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT […]

WSJ: GOP Effort to Overturn Arbitration Rule at Risk From Republican Defectors

Here.  Excerpt: [S]upport [to overturn the rule] in the Senate is uncertain. No Democrats are likely to back the effort, and Republicans, with their slim majority, can’t afford to lose more than two GOP votes. Several Republican senators have expressed reservations about voting to overturn the regulation, worried they may be portrayed as siding with […]

The Hill: 3 big lies bank lobbyists peddle to protect corporate scoundrels

Here.  Excerpt: Big Lie No. 1: Bank lobbyists claim that people recover more in arbitration than in class actions: $32 per person in class actions versus $5,400 per person in arbitration, citing the CFPB’s study.  * * * The very few people who take the time and expense to pursue an individual arbitration — only […]