Classwide Recoveries
Joshua P. Davis · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 890 (2014) Classwide recoveries can have important advantages over individual recoveries. They can, for example, allow plaintiffs to pursue litigation when individual actions would be uneconomical, and they can make possible a statistical approach that is often not feasible in ordinary litigation. This Article... Read More
Class Actions and Access to Justice
Roger H. Trangsrud · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 595 (2014) Class actions serve a vital role: they facilitate the adjudication of rights that would never see the inside of a courtroom if there were not an effective mechanism to aggregate small-value claims. However, the power of the class action also leads to... Read More
Fact Determination in Rule 23 Class Actions
Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 990 (2014) Considerable complication and difficulty has been experienced in Rule 23 litigation because of uncertainty about the authority of the court to make fact determinations, particularly in connection with the issue of class certification. The assumption has been that the Supreme Court’s... Read More
The Problem of Settlement Class Actions
Howard M. Erichson · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 951 (2014) This Article argues that class actions should never be certified solely for purposes of settlement. Contrary to the widespread “settlement class action” practice that has emerged in recent decades, contrary to current case law permitting settlement class certification, and contrary to recent... Read More
“No Injury” Plaintiffs and Standing
Edward Sherman · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 834 (2014) American courts have wrestled with the issue of standing in lawsuits where there is a question as to whether the plaintiff has an “injury in fact.” The issue has developed differently depending on the context. The issue arose in mass tort suits where... Read More
Class Actions for Monetary Relief Under Rule 23(b)(1)(A) and (b)(1)(B): Does Due Process Require Notice and Opt-Out Rights?
Robert H. Klonoff · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 798 (2014) The courts are in disarray regarding the due process rights of absent class members in mandatory Rule 23(b)(1)(A) and (b)(1)(B) class actions involving money damages. That confusion is the result of a series of Supreme Court decisions, culminating in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.... Read More
Cy Pres and the Optimal Class Action
Jay Tidmarsh · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 767 (2014) This Article examines the problem of cy pres relief in class actions through the lens of optimal claim structure and class membership. It finds that the present cy pres doctrine does little to advance the creation of optimal class actions, and that it... Read More
The Unruly Class Action
Laura J. Hines · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 718 (2014) This Article examines the modern “issue class action” and its tenacious existence in a hostile class action landscape. I contend that this unauthorized, unbounded device is on a collision course with decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence narrowly interpreting the federal class action... Read More
The Misguided Search for Class Unity
Robert G. Bone · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 651 (2014) This Article focuses on a conflict at the core of federal class action law between an “internal” and an “external” view of the class. The internal view sees the class as a device constructed by the judge to achieve the functional goals... Read More
Putting Proponents to Their Proof: Evidentiary Rules at Class Certification
Linda S. Mullenix · May 2014 82 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 606 (2014) One of the most often cited precepts at class certification hearings—when courts hold such hearings—is that the rules of evidence do not apply. Since 1966, virtually every federal and state judge has fallen back on this trope to wave off objections to... Read More