Give credit to class action critics: They have succeeded in prompting trial and appellate judges to think about systemic class action concerns – and in prompting the Justice Department and state attorneys general to oppose objectionable settlements. Supreme Court – are actively considering most of the issues the proposed law sought to resolve. If there were ever a moment when class action critics had an opportunity to gut the cases by an act of Congress, that moment has passed.īut what struck me as I went back to read the Goodlatte bill again is that courts – including the U.S. Democrats, who will control the House in the next Congress, will not be reintroducing Goodlatte’s bill and seem unlikely to pass anything similar that might emerge from the Republican-controlled Senate. Goodlatte, who had made a class action reform a signature issue, did not run for reelection in 2018. The Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act passed the House with alacrity but never even made it to a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, let alone the full body. Want more On the Case? Listen to the On the Case podcast. As I said at the time, if Goodlatte’s bill were enacted, class actions and MDLs would be reduced to a shadow of their former selves. Lawyers wouldn’t get paid until all money has been distributed to class members – a process that can take years. Class lawyers would have to disclose ongoing contractual relationships with lead plaintiffs, as well as third-party funding deals. Plaintiffs lawyers’ employees and relatives could not serve as class representatives. Class certification decisions would be automatically appealable. Courts would be precluded from certifying classes unless plaintiffs' lawyers could prove every class member suffered the same injury and that class membership was easily ascertainable. The Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act was fantasy fulfillment for class action critics, proposing solutions for all kinds of perceived abuses. (Reuters) - In the heady days of January 2017, when Republicans dreamed of a limitless legislative horizon, Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who headed the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a breathtaking bill to change the rules of class action and multidistrict litigation.

Operation beyond the horizon 2017