Group Consensus, Individual Consent
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 506 (2011) Despite a rise in the number of personal injury and product liability cases consolidated through multidistrict litigation, a decline in class certification motions, and several newsworthy nonclass settlements, such as the $4.85 billion Vioxx settlement and estimated $1.2 billion Zyprexa settlements, little... Read More
“Abandoned Claims” in Class Actions: Implications for Preclusion and Adequacy of Counsel
Edward F. Sherman · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 483 (2011) Plaintiff class counsel sometimes seek class certification for only some of the possible claims to which the class members are entitled. The reasons may include to avoid (or take advantage of) venue or jurisdictional limitations, to prevent removal to federal court of... Read More
Federal Class Actions: A Near-Death Experience in a Shady Grove
Linda S. Mullenix · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 448 (2011) In a significant appeal decided March 31, 2010—and largely ignored by the media—a plurality of Supreme Court Justices in Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P.A. v. Allstate Insurance Co. rescued federal class actions from withering demise at the hands of the states. The... Read More
Improving the Class Action Settlement Process: Little Things Mean a Lot
Alan B. Morrison · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 428 (2011) In 2010, the American Law Institute published its Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation, which include extensive discussion of and rules for class actions generally and for their settlement in particular. A few of these changes result from amendments to Rule... Read More
The Jurisdictional Nature of Adequate Representation in Class Litigation
Patrick Woolley · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 410 (2011) The American Law Institute sets an ambitious goal in Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation: “to identify techniques that promote the efficiency and efficacy of aggregate lawsuits as tools for enforcing valid laws.” The ALI identifies many techniques that promote that goal.... Read More
A Solution to the Choice of Law Problem of Differing State Laws in Class Actions: Average Law
Luke McCloud & David Rosenberg · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 374 (2011) In this Essay, we show why and how to apply the average of differing state laws to overcome the choice of law impediment currently blocking certification of multistate, federal diversity class actions. Our main contribution is in demonstrating that the... Read More
Reviving Judicial Gatekeeping of Aggregation: Scrutinizing the Merits on Class Certification
Richard Marcus · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 324 (2011) Judges have always been gatekeepers, but their gatekeeping tasks have changed a good deal over time. Gatekeeping is central to litigation aggregation, and it is thus not surprising to find that it is also central to the Principles of the Law of Aggregate... Read More
The Future of Mass Litigation: Global Class Actions and Third-Party Litigation Funding
Deborah R. Hensler · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 306 (2011) For many years after Rule 23 was adopted, the United States was not only the center of class action litigation, it was virtually the only jurisdiction that permitted class actions. Nor were large-scale aggregated proceedings common elsewhere. Since then, there has been... Read More
Aggregate Litigation Reconsidered
Roger H. Trangsrud · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 293 (2011) Aggregate litigation has become an integral part of the U.S. civil justice system, used in cases as varied as civil rights, securities, and mass torts. Aggregate litigation, however, is often the cause of intense controversy among the private bar, the bench, and... Read More
Medical Marketing in the United States: A Prescription for Reform
Joshua Weiss · November 2010 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 260 (2010) Each year, physicians in the United States write more than three billion prescriptions, or about twelve prescriptions per American. In 2009 alone, the United States spent some $300 billion on prescription drugs. Similarly, the medical device market accounts for around $200 billion in... Read More