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Spring 2010
 Class Actions - SCHWARTZ, H.-
added 10-1-09; course cancelled 11-13-09

Professor(s):

Credits:

Course Areas: Procedure and Practice 

Time:   Cancelled 11-13-09 Location:  

Course Outline: Class Actions
Synopsis
Spring Semester 2010


Class action litigation represents an exception to the general rule that one cannot be bound to a judgment rendered in litigation when that person has not been joined as a named party. Class actions have been characterized as a non-traditional form of litigation by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Scholar/U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein said that the class action”…touches on the credibility of our judicial system.”

The Supreme Court has recognized that the class action is at the core of the policy and mechanism to overcome the problem that small recoveries do not provide the incentive for any individual to bring an action to recover a small amount of monetary damages is overcome by the class action. A class action resolves that problems by aggregating the small potential recovery into something worth the time, effort and expense of the party and the lawyer prosecuting the case.

The class action is often the last barrier of consumer protection in matters of small damages to a large group of consumers. When the small amount of losses to individual persons are, in the aggregate, benefiting the wrongdoer, the private class action permits the full monetary and injunctive relief of many class members.

Aside from the benefits of recovering monetary damages, the defendant often permanently alters a pattern of wrongful policies, perhaps industry-wide, that may benefit many thousands of people and the local or national economy. Thus, class actions serve an important public purpose far beyond compensating the injured class member.

The absence of the class action procedural device would immunize corporate entities as they wrongfully acquire many millions of dollars by stealing in $5 or $10 increments from thousands of consumers over a long period of time.

The pooling of many thousands of small claims being aggregated is sound public and judicial policy otherwise, the small plaintiff wrongfully deprived of perhaps $100 would have no meaningful or realistic day in court.

As recently as 2005 Congress reiterated the value of the class action mechanism. Public Law 109-2, 119 Stat 4, February 18, 2005.

(a) Congress finds the following:
(1) Class action lawsuits are an important and valuable part of the legal system when they permit the fair and efficient resolution of legitimate claims of numerous parties by allowing the claims to be aggregated into a single action against a defendant that has allegedly caused harm.
(b) the purposes of the [Class Action] act are to:
(1) assure fair and prompt recoveries for class members with legitimate claims;
. . . .
(3) benefit society by encouraging innovation and lowering consumer prices.

Herbert Schwartz
Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)
Adjunct Professor

Course Syllabus:

Course Notes:   

Prerequisites:  

First Day Assignments:

Final Exam Schedule: 05/10 6 - 8pm      

This course will have:
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Book Requirements:

• (10/30/2009 9:16:11 AM) Title: Class Actions and Other Multi-Party Litigation CASES AND MATERIALS
  Author: Robert H. Klonoff, Edward K.M. Bilich & Suzette M. Malveaux
  Edition:  Year:  ISBN:  Publisher: Thomson West
   American Casebook Series