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How Class Actions Work |
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The Facts Behind Class Actions
Congress is currently considering legislation that would dramatically limit Americans' rights to bring
class action lawsuits. The national class action debate has provided consumer groups a forum in
which to respond to many of the unfounded criticisms thrust upon class actions. Below are some insights
into the debate:
- "State court class actions continue to provide significant relief to consumers who would
otherwise have gone without compensation. For instance, state-court class actions involving
polybutylene pipe illustrate the importance of consumers banding together to fight corporate
irresponsibility. Shell, Dupont and other corporate giants sold leaky plastic pipes, which
caused severe damage to the homes of tens of thousands of unsuspecting consumers. This
state-court litigation resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries and
replacement of the faulty piping, which would never have occurred if the homeowners were
required to face off against the companies on their own."
The testimony of Brian Wolfman, Esq. staff attorney, Public Citizen
Litigation Group before the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on
Courts and Intellectual Property regarding H.R. 3789, June 18, 1998.
- "Class actions economize on judicial resources. Class actions are an efficient and
practical method of bringing action since they combine similar claims; they also reduce the
number of inconsistent judgments and lower court costs. "
Sally J. Greenberg, Senior Product Safety Counsel, Consumers Union, Publisher
of Consumer Reports, June 26, 2000.
- "Class actions are an important tool that can be used to protect the public's health
and critical natural resources by offering a legal means to aggregate claims to address
them more efficiently and effectively than can be done through individual litigation.
Citizens may use the state class action mechanism to gain access to the courts in situations
where defendants, through a single act or series of acts, have inflicted similar injuries on
a large number of people in a community exposed to toxins from a chemical accident, or whose
wells have been contaminated, or who have suffered other environmental harm."
Letter to the Judiciary Committee Members, United States Senate, by Paul
Schwartz, National Campaigns Director, Clean Water Action, Joan Mulhern,
Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, and Anna Aurilio,
Legislative Director, U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
- "Historically, state court class action litigation has been one of the most effective
and efficient tools for injured citizens to gain access to the courts, particularly in
cases where a defendant has injured a large number of people. Class action cases give
plaintiffs the opportunity to consolidate their claims, making it financially possible
for them to bring the case. Prior to recent class action victories, tobacco companies
had been largely successful in avoiding litigation by making it too expensive for
plaintiffs to sue them. H.R. 1875 would make this a likely scenario once again, ending
the gains consumers have made in holding tobacco companies accountable for the harm they have done."
Action on Smoking and Health
Alabama Citizens Action Program
Alliance for Lung Cancer Advocacy, Support, and Education ALCASE), WA
American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP)
Tobacco Policy Task Force
American Academy of Pediatrics, Nebraska Chapter
American Association for Health Education
American Cancer Society
American Council on Science and Health
American Heart Association
American Heart Association of Hawaii
American Lung Association
American Medical Student Association
American Medical Women's Association
American Society of Addiction Medicine
Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights
Arizona Consumers Council
Arkansas Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Arlington Citizens for Clean Air, TX
Association for Nonsmokers - Minnesota
Charlevoix-Emmet-Antrim Tobacco Reduction Coalition, (NW MI Comm Health) MI
Children Afflicted by Toxic Substances
Chippewa Valley Tobacco-Free Youth Coalition, WI
Citizens for A Toabcco-free Society (CATS) Inc., OH
Citizens for Consumer Justice, PA
City of Fort Worth Public Health Department, TX
Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley, PA
Coalition for Consumer Rights
Community Health Education Institute
Clean Air Council, PA
CYR and Associates, Consultants to Public and Private Non-Profit Agencies (Member of the Nevada Tobacco Prevention
Coalition)
Environmental Improvement Associates, Salem, NJ
Empire State Consumer Association, NY
Families Advocating Injury Reduction (FAIR)
Family Counseling Center, Colorado
Florida PIRG
Foundation for a Smokefree America- Patrick Reynolds, President
GASP of Florida
Georgians Against Smoking Pollution (GASP)
Health Advocacy Group of Southside VA
INFACT- Campaign for Corporate Accountability
Kauai Tobacco-Free Community Coalition, HI
La Crosse Area Health Initiative/S.A.F.E. Coalition/La Crosse Public Schools, WI
Marshfield Citizens for Crud Free Alveoli, MA
Maryland Group Against Smokers Pollution (GASP)
Massachusetts Association of Health Boards
Minorities For Tobacco, Alcohol & Drug-Free Communities
Montana PIRG
National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBH)
Oral Health America
Oregon Consumer League
Oregon State PIRG
Pennsylvania Citizens Consumer Council
Pennsylvania Institute for Community Services
PRIDE-Omaha, Inc.(Parent Resources and Information on DrugEducation), NE
Progressive Democtratic Network, WI
REPACE ASSOCIATES, Inc. Secondhand Smoke Consultants
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, NY
San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association
Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight, PA
SmokeFree Air For Everyone (S.A.F.E.), CA
SmokeFree Educational Services, Inc.
SmokeFree Florida
SmokeFree Maryland
SmokeFree Montgomery County Coalition, Rockville, MD
SmokeFree Pennsylvania
Smoke-Free USA.Com, Inc.
St. Joseph Medical Center, MD
St. Louis County Public Health
The BADvertising Institute, NY
The Crime Prevention Group, MI
The Great Cincinnati Coalition on Smoking and Health Inc., OH
The Greater New York Chapter of SOPHE (Society for Public Health Education)
Tobacco Control Law & Policy Consulting, MI
Tobacco Free Future Project, MN
Tobacco Free Las Cruces Coalition, NM
Tobacco Free Youth Coalition-Penn State Cooperative Extension,PA
United States Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG)
Virginia GASP
Wisconsin Initiative on Smoking and Health
Zumbro Valley Medical Society, MN
- "Class actions are filed when many individuals are similarly injured and are essential
to protect the rights of people whose individual claims do not warrant separate litigation.
They deter and encourage reform of deceptive and fraudulent business practices that cost
Americans billions of dollars a year. In addition, class actions do all this while conserving
limited judicial resources that would be wasted in duplicative proceedings."
Citizens for Corporate Accountability and Individual Rights
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Consumer Federation of America
Handgun Control, Inc.
National Association of Consumer Advocates
National Consumers League
National Employment Lawyers Association
Public Citizen
U.S. PIRG
Violence Policy Center
- "The class action mechanism is an important tool for patients who have received
similar injuries from prescription drugs, allowing them to aggregate their cases for
cost-effective litigation; without it, patients in many cases would be unable to
pursue their legitimate claims individually. That may explain why such billion-dollar
pharmaceutical firms as Procter & Gamble, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer actively
lobbied Congress last year to pass H.R. 3789, the Class Action "Fairness" Act of 1998
[similar in scope to this year's H.R. 1875]."
AIDS Action Council
Center on Disability and Health
Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways
Communications Workers of America
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
Families USA
National Association of Protection & Advocacy Systems
National Black Women's Health Project
National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
National Health Law Program
National Senior Citizen's Law Center
National Women's Health Network
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
The Arc of the United States
- "It is important at the outset to note the role that class actions play in making the courts
available to all Americans. In some situations, a large number of individuals are significantly
harmed as a group but they have no realistic avenue to obtain justice individually because their
respective harms are too small to make individual suits practical. In these cases, a class action
in a local forum is virtually the only way these individuals can seek redress through the legal
system. Just a few years ago, 500 individuals, most of whom were Washington State residents,
sued Foodmaker, a Delaware corporation, in state court for negligence in serving undercooked
hamburgers infected with the E. coli bacteria and its "Jack in the Box" restaurants. They
received a $14 million settlement. Similarly, some 750 people, most of whom were Colorado
residents, were able to bring a Colorado-based class action against a health care center for
maintaining unhygienic conditions that caused outbreaks of illness. In Pennsylvania, a class
of largely Pennsylvanian car owners burned when their airbags deployed were able to recover
from Chrysler the cost of re-fitting their cars with safer airbags. Class actions are also
a very efficient means of resolving large numbers of claims that share common issues of fact
and law, particularly when state citizens can seek redress in their state courts for violations
of their rights under state law. Moreover, without fair access to class action procedures, many
individuals' claims could simply not go forward and those that could, as individual suits, would
require greater investments of judicial time than class actions, which could delay -- and
sometimes even deny -- justice to those plaintiffs as well; class actions can keep the
courtroom doors open. Class actions can also reduce or eliminate inconsistent verdicts,
which benefits plaintiffs, defendants, and the entire system of justice. Because of the
importance of class actions, we should be cautious in curtailing access to them."
Eleanor D. Acheson, Assistant Attorney General, United States Department of Justice,
Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999 (H.R. 1875), Workplace Goods Job Growth
and Competitiveness Act of 1999 (H.R. 2005), House Judiciary Committee, July 21, 1999
10:00 am.
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