Roger H. Transgrud · February 2008
76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 181 (2008)
My topic today is modern class action practice and how Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure has come to be interpreted in our federal courts in ways that I believe mask the proper criteria that should be used in deciding whether to certify a class action. There can be little doubt that the class action rule is the most controversial provision in our procedure today, and that in many cases it has allowed a remedy to large groups of plaintiffs who would otherwise have had no other practical means of going to court, but that—at the same time—it has also been abused in some cases in ways that have proven unfair to absent class members or to the institutional defendants who must defend these civil juggernauts. My goal at the end of this talk is to suggest some fundamental ways we might reform class action practice to avoid the abuses, retain the benefits, and help class action litigation rest more comfortably within our adversary system.
