If you want the truth about class actions, you'll rarely find it in the popular press. Even the left-leaning St. Louis Post-Disptach has been editorializing recently against class actions.
What's the good of class actions? I've found that Op-Ed editors shy away from lawyers who are writing to defend class actions, but I managed to get two Op-Eds on the topic published: "Class Actions Deter Corporate Wrongdoing" in the Roanoke Times, and "The Best Defense Against Class Actions" in the Alton Telegraph.
In a world without class actions, big corporations would steal everything we have, a dollar at a time.
Here in Madison County, Illinois (where I've been practicing more than thirteen years), I've always been amused at the way the local paper in the neighboring St. Clair County, the Belleville News-Democrat, is fascinated by plaintiffs' lawyers, yet never tires of dissing them as often as possible. Today's lead in an article about class actions: "A record number of class-action lawsuits -- 106 -- were filed last year in Madison County, topping the previous high of 77 the previous year." ("Class Action Lawsuits Set a Record," by Brian Brueggemann).
The article, heavy on quotes from a big business lobbyist, complains that "in 2002, more class actions were filed in Madison County per capita than any other county in the United States. That number for 2003 is again expected to be tops in the country." The paper apparently wasn't able to find a class action lawyer to respond.
Why does the number of class actions filed, considered by itself, have any meaning? As usual, there is no discussion of how many of these cases are dismissed voluntarily, perhaps because they duplicate actions of other lawyers; how many are dismissed voluntarily at the urging of one of the great defense lawyers who practice around here; how many are removed to federal court and stay there; how many fail at the certification stage; and how many are settled. The newspaper has never explored the good that comes out of class actions (see next post). The newspaper rarely explores the facts of any particular case.
When it comes to class actions, there are important, weighty issues to discuss. Yet here's the Belleville News-Democrat's take: "Class actions in our neck of the woods? They're B - A - D."
With corporate America spending millions on “grassroots” efforts to discredit class actions, it’s often hard to separate the truth from the propoganda.
What is corporate America hiding? Class actions serve as an important deterrent to corporate wrongdoing. As an Illinois appellate court has written, the class action “is one of the few legal remedies the small claimant has against those who command the status quo.”
Thanks to the threat of class actions, a corporation must think twice before scheming to overcharge its customers, violating antitrust laws, or crossing the line from “maximizing profits” to cheating customers. A few years ago, a number of corporate scandals were first unearthed by class actions against Worldcom, Global Crossing, Tyco and Enron.
Class actions also work to make products safer. The Firestone litigation resulted in safer tires for thousands. The litigation over diet drugs, Rezulin and Baycol resulted in well-deserved compensation to those permanently impaired by drugs that should never have been placed on the market. Other products made safer through litigation include childrens’ toys, football helmets, garage doors, and farm machinery.
Rather than blaming lawyers, companies should make sure their products are safe and their policies are fair to consumers. In the end, this will always be the best defense against class actions.
To read the newspaper coverage in the papers surrounding Madison County, Illinois, you'd think that lawyers' fees in class actions were skyrocketing. That's not the case, according to a non-biased study by two law school professors summarized yesterday in the New York Times. ("Study Disputes View of Costly Surge in Class-Action Suits," by Jonathan D. Glater) (free registration may be required).
The study's conclusion? --
In their article, Mr. Eisenberg and his co-author, Geoffrey P. Miller, a New York University law professor, write that if the effects of inflation are taken into account, then from 1993 through 2002, "contrary to popular belief, we find no robust evidence that either recoveries for plaintiffs or fees for their attorneys as a percentage of the class recovery increased."
For more about class actions, here is a link to an Op-Ed by an S&L partner that was published in the Roanoke Times: "Class Actions Deter Corporate Wrongdoing."