Bush to Sign Class Action Bill

[Brown]

From ABC News (US) and AP:

Congress on Thursday passed legislation that would transfer most large, multistate class-action lawsuits to federal court, fulfilling one of President Bush's second-term goals.

The aim of the bill, supporters said, was to protect businesses and stop lawyers from reaping huge profits by filing suits in carefully selected state courts.
...
The Senate passed the bill Feb. 10. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday.

As I have said before, class actions for damages are far more subject to abuse than medical malpractice actions. They are subject to abuse from both sides, with the ones getting the short end of the stick being the members of the class, who in theory are the ones who are supposed to be protected.

I was pleased that President Bush made class action reform one of his goals (albeit a goal that received little publicity).

Although the full effect of the legislation (S.5, I think) will not be known for a while (because it may take a few years to sort itself out), the idea seems to be a step in the right direction. Federal courts are generally more active than state courts in their oversight of lawsuits, and are less likely to put up with the questionable practices that seem commonplace in state courts.

 

[gnome]

I can see the possible benefits... the only concern I have, does Bush have more influence over federal than state judges? It could be seen as a move to put large cases under federal courts so that his appointees will be there to obstruct large awards.

I have no idea whether this scenario is even a realistic concern, it just crossed my mind.

 

[Brown]

I can see the possible benefits... the only concern I have, does Bush have more influence over federal than state judges? It could be seen as a move to put large cases under federal courts so that his appointees will be there to obstruct large awards.

Ideology and political connections don't play as big a role in district court appointments as they do in appellate appointments. It is unlikely that the President would be able to appoint a judiciary that would be inclined to swat down large awards as a matter of course. It is more likely that court administration would develop procedures for more careful oversight of class actions, and would therefore give class actions more scrutiny. The prospect of more scrutiny would help weed out the spurious and obstructive class actions (which is what the system needs... and a pay increase for the robed folks who have to apply this scrutiny wouldn't be out of line, either).

Class actions for damages have their place. Sometimes, a defendant does indeed injure a class as a whole, and should pay a large judgment to the members of the class. In those cases, federal judges, regardless of political stripe, are unlikely to cut down a large award merely because it is large. They will cut down a large award if it is unsupported by the evidence or the result of unfair influence or otherwise unreasonable.