Ted Frank appears on the Future of Freedom podcast to rebut Prof. Brian Fitzpatrick's contention that conservatives should prefer class actions to government regulation.
Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute filed an amicus brief in favor of granting certiorari. Its brief noted that Grutter, though expressly limited to higher-education admissions, has had pernicious effects rationalizing racial discrimination in the name of “diversity” in fields well beyond higher-education admissions.
Today the Center for Class Action Fairness filed a supplemental brief with the Supreme Court, arguing the Ninth Circuit’s decision in the EasySaver case earlier this month underscores the need for its proposed standard governing cy pres settlements in class action suits when the court decides Frank v. Gaos. “EasySaver is a disturbing example of how the Ninth Circuit’s lenient approach to cy pres in class action settlements creates an incentive for class attorneys to favor sending money to their preferred…
“We are gratified that the court rejected class counsel’s attempt to evade the Class Action Fairness Act’s restrictions on coupon settlements, but the fact that the court was willing to countenance attorneys choosing to prefer their alma mater and local San Diego schools to nationwide class recovery while collecting 15 to 40 times as much as their clients shows why the Supreme Court needs to reverse in Frank v. Gaos. We are considering our options for further review.”
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney Ted Frank discussed class action lawsuits on Lawsuit Watch, hosted by Curt Schroder.
They funnel millions in settlement money to select causes—including their own alma maters.
F. Paul Bland asserts (Letters, Sept. 12) that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule is necessary to avoid “immunity” for Wells Fargo for creating fake accounts. Like most antiarbitration rhetoric, this is fiction. The CFPB’s antiarbitration rule isn’t even in effect, yet government authorities (not class-action lawyers) required Wells Fargo to provide full restitution for consumers, fined the bank an additional $185 million in addition to Wells Fargo losing substantial market share from…
“I’m confident that one day this decade a different court of appeals will disagree with one of those Posner opinions, the Supreme Court will take up the circuit split, and then tell us that Posner was right all along,” Frank said.
Do Americans need more lawsuits? They’ll get them if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has its way. The CFPB—created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and still run by an Obama appointee—issued a rule in July barring financial institutions from including arbitration clauses in their contracts with customers. That means disputes would have to be settled by class-action lawsuits, which mostly benefit lawyers. The agency justifies its rule by claiming it…
In too many settlements, the same lawyers who rail against deceptive marketing tactics use deceptive settlement provisions to unfairly appropriate the lion’s share of the money for themselves. Kumar v. Salov North America Corp., where the attorneys look to get over 300% of what their clients will, is a good example of this unwelcome phenomenon.
