The federal government and the states each play an important role in addressing the problem of lawsuit abuse. Many important legal reforms have been enacted and implemented at the federal level, ensuring reliable national standards that give businesses the predictability they need in order to operate.
Congress is currently considering a number of important legal reform proposals that would help restore balance to America's civil justice system. These include national preemptive data privacy legislation, asbestos litigation reform, and disclosure of third-party funding arrangements, among others.
In addition, some Departments of the Executive Branch have promulgated internal reforms that are designed to ensure fairness and due process in enforcement actions. For example, both the Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice have announced that their civil enforcement actions must be based on clear statutory or regulatory authority. The Justice Department also has adopted policies to encourage corporate compliance programs and cooperation in investigations; these policies will increase corporate adherence to regulatory requirements and preserve finite government resources. For more detail see the Over-Enforcement page.
Finally, there is a need to defend against efforts by the plaintiffs’ bar to expand liability in Congress, federal courts, and regulatory agencies. For example, the trial bar is working to increase class action litigation, eliminate the availability of pre-dispute arbitration agreements and increase liability against product manufacturers.
Private rights of action (PRAs) are highly problematic: the plaintiffs' bar benefits significantly from America's lawsuit system, while consumers are left with little. PRAs are especially poor tools for addressing privacy issues, which are better left to regulators with relevant expertise and perspective to shape and balance penalties, deterrence, innovation, and consumer protection. Read More
Multidistrict litigation proceedings (MDLs) were created as an efficient way to handle pretrial proceedings in hundreds or thousands of similar cases against the same defendant. Unfortunately, MDLs also give plaintiffs an unfair advantage when it comes to appeals. If a defendant makes a dispositive motion-on preemption or expert evidence, for example-and is denied, it won't normally have access to immediate appeal. But if the defendant wins the motion, plaintiffs can appeal right away. This paper argues for courts to give MDL plaintiffs and defendants equal access to appellate review. Read More
"The New Class Action Frontier Under Illinois Privacy Law"... Read More
Lawyers and legal experts told Law360 that an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) may change the law "as we know it."... Read More
Ben & Jerry's Says Happy Cow Lawsuit Should Be Dismissed; Professional TCPA Plaintiff Faces Racketeering Lawsuit... Read More
Skadden Attorneys Predict Continued "Record Pace" Of Securities Lawsuit Filings; Public May Be Interested In TPLF, Judge Says... Read More
The director of the Center for Class Action Fairness at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute called a recent book by a Vanderbilt law professor an "oxymoron."... Read More
An appeal before the Seventh Circuit could determine how much deference the U.S. government gets in dismissing whistleblower False Claims Act cases, Bloomberg Law reports.... Read More
CCPA Compliance Costs Expected to Reach $55 Billion... Read More
Judge Pauses California Arbitration Ban; Federal Government, Some States and Trade Groups Supporting Bayer Roundup Appeal... Read More
The surge of securities class action lawsuit filings continued in 2019 with a total number of fillings that was 99 percent higher than the annual average between 1997 and 2017, D&O Diary's Kevin LaCroix reports.... Read More
Our Winter 2019 Research Review looks at a number of legal trends that are creating increasingly complex litigation and compliance burdens for companies-leaving the door open for plaintiffs' lawyers to profit.... Read More
