Class Action Fairness

Last Friday President Bush signed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 into law, but some don't think it goes far enough to end abuses in class action litigation.

An article on Law.com yesterday attributes part of the problem, at least, to what 7th. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook back in 2002 referred to as "central planning"-- that "one judge is no more likely to set the right price for tens of thousands of lawsuits than Soviet central planners did for Ukrainian wheat or Lada cars." (See In re Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. Tires Products Liability Litigation, 288 F3d 1012)

The article also promoted Rep. Christopher Cox's soon-to-be-introduced "Right to Choose Your Own Lawyer" bill, intending to "break class action suits into 'smaller parcels', and put more control in the hands of victims."

This morning there's an article about the Supreme Court's now considering the issue of "diversity jurisdiction" in the case of Roche v. Lincoln Property Co.