WSJ op-ed: Justice Jackson’s Incredible Statistic
Ted Frank: Jackson’s dissent from the ruling on affirmative action makes an obviously implausible claim.
FedSoc: Countering the Biden Administration’s ESG Push: A Litigation Update on Utah v. Walsh
HLLI's Anna St. John and Ned Hedley write at The Federalist Society: The plaintiffs challenging the ESG Rule argue that it is contrary to the ERISA statute, exceeds the DOL’s authority, and is arbitrary and capricious. Utah v. Walsh also presents separation of powers questions.
AUDIO: Ted Frank Discusses Class Action Lawsuits on Lawsuit Watch
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney Ted Frank discussed class action lawsuits on Lawsuit Watch, hosted by Curt Schroder.
WSJ: For Some Class-Action Lawyers, Charity Begins and Ends at Home
They funnel millions in settlement money to select causes—including their own alma maters.
WSJ: Where Was CFPB While Wells Fargo Plundered?
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…
Posner Leaves ‘Enormous Imprint’ on Class Actions
“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.
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WSJ: Congress Can Rescind the CFPB’s Gift to Trial Lawyers
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…
Protecting consumers from swindlers: How ‘fake facts’ make millions for class-action lawyers
The too-common scam goes like this. Trial lawyers bring a class action against a business, alleging unfair charges or false advertising and seeking to recover a few dollars each for thousands or millions of its customers. It’s okay if the case is weak, because the defendant still finds it cheaper to settle the lawsuit for a small percentage of the total losses alleged than to fight on.
Footlong Subs and Other Frivolous Lawsuits
In class-action lawsuits the threat of astronomical liability drives many defendants to settle — even if the plaintiffs’ chances of success are negligible. But because there’s only so much money that defendants are willing to spend, such nuisance lawsuits often lead to settlements where the attorneys get more than their fair share. It works like a formula: The plaintiffs’ attorneys and the few named representative plaintiffs divvy up the entire cash proceeds, leaving the remainder of the class with a potpourri of worthless window dressing.
CCAF in today’s New York Times
"The leading critic of abusive class-action settlements is Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action Fairness, and he is one of the lawyers challenging the Facebook settlement. In testimony in March before a House subcommittee, Mr. Frank said Facebook’s payment to the new charity bordered on a sham."
Scourge of carpathia