Judge Posner’s quote about employment cases below is equally applicable today.
“To retaliate against a man by hurting a member of his family is an ancient method of revenge, and is not unknown in the field of labor relations.”
– Richard Postner, J., in NLRB v. Advertisers Mfg. Co., 823 F.2d 1086, 1088 (7th Cir. 1987)
New research by finance and accounting professors at Rutgers and Emory Universities’ business schools finds that class action lawsuits are a strong deterrent to misrepresenting corporate financial results and other wrongdoing. And, in many instances, class actions are a stronger deterrent than SEC enforcement actions.
The research found statistically and economically significant deterrence associated with both SEC enforcement and class action lawsuits, according to Simi Kedia, Ph.D., MBA, associate professor of finance at Rutgers University School of Business. The study, a working paper presented at conference and now being circulated for comment before publication, measured the effectiveness of the two primary methods of federal securities regulatory and law enforcement: “public” enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission; and, “private” enforcement through securities class action lawsuits. Read more…
A class action lawsuit has been filed against News Corporation (“News Corp.”), Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks (collectively “Defendants”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Civil Class Action Case No. 11-4947). The complaint alleges that News Corp. and other defendants knew or were reckless in not knowing that employees at News of the World had allegedly hacked into the cell phone messages of thousands of cell phone users and allegedly issued misrepresentations to the stock market purportedly in violation of federal securities laws. Read more…
The documentary Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonalds, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. First-time filmmaker and former public interest lawyer Susan Saladoff uses this infamous case to investigate what’s behind the push for tort reform – which threatens to restrict the legal rights of everyday citizens and undermine the entire justice system. Read more…
The Federal Judicial Center has released an updated 2010 “Managing Class Action Litigation: A Pocket Guide for Judges” which will assist Federal Judges (and practitioners) handling class actions.
The pocket guide is helpful for practitioners to learn what judges may be considering when a class action is pending before them. The Pocket Guide can be accessed through this link: Pocket Guide for Judges
Years ago, there were some isolated abuses of class actions that resulted in some negative publicity for class actions. Because of that negative publicity, Congress passed laws like the Class Action Fairness Act, which have largely eliminated complaints about the conduct of class actions in the past few years.
