The Class Action as an Antitrust Enforcement Device: The Chicago Experience (I)

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1021-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin S. DuVal

The common question class action has been a source of division and controversy in the legal community. Hailed by its proponents as both a means for small claimants to obtain redress and a deterrent to corporate wrongdoing, the class action has been attacked by others as tantamount to “legalized blackmail” and as threatening to swamp the already overburdened judicial system with proceedings of extraordinary complexity. Two empirical studies of the class action have also reached diametrically opposed conclusions. A study by the American College of Trial Lawyers found that the common question class action suit “has mandated heavy expenditures of judicial time, effort and expense” and has sacrificed “procedural and substantive fairness to the party opposing the class,” while a study commissioned by the Senate Commerce Committee found that most class actions “proceed with reasonable smoothness in the Federal court.” Proposals to restrict the use of class actions have been advanced. While these proposals have not been adopted, the courts have increasingly limited the circumstances under which class actions may be maintained.

1979 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-463
Author(s):  
Benjamin S. DuVal

In 1976 the author published the results of a study of antitrust class actions in the Northern District of Illinois. At the time the data for that study were collected a substantial portion of the cases included in the study were pending. In the present article the author reassesses the findings of his earlier study on the basis of newly collected data on the cases that were then pending. Among the issues discussed are the comparative burdensomeness of class and nonclass cases, the alleged in terrorem effect of the class action on antitrust defendants, and the results achieved through the use of the class action.


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-637
Author(s):  
Žygimantas Juška

The U.S. system has relied heavily on antitrust class actions as a means of ensuring compensation and deterrence. Although this tool seems sensible in theory, the reality is that it remains highly controversial. On the one hand, commentators argue that class actions force defendants to settle cases lacking merit. Even if a settlement agreement is assumed to have a merit, class actions are accused of doing a poor job in compensating victims and deterring wrongdoers. On the other hand, the proponents of class actions claim that there is no reliable empirical evidence proving that class action schemes caused negative effects on antitrust litigation. The public debate about the effectiveness of class actions illustrate the controversial nature of American class actions fairly well. Therefore, using comparative insights from the predominant controversies, this study will determine how well antitrust class actions fulfill compensation objectives and to what extent they can facilitate deterrence.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Richard RYAN ◽  
Ellen PARRY

A ground-breaking judgment of the Australian Federal Court regarding the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea in 2009, Sanda v PTTEP Australasia (Ashmore Cartier) Pty Ltd (No 7) (Sanda (No 7)), 1 is one of the few Australian class actions to proceed to a favourable judgment for the claimants. It is also the first judgment against an Australian company for cross-border pollution loss suffered by foreign claimants.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Caruana ◽  
Vince Morabito

Ten months before Ontario became the first Canadian common law province to authorise American-style class actions, class actions became available in the Federal Court of Australia. In these two countries and in the United States, the named plaintiffs, commonly referred to as class representatives, are the only claimants formally in charge of the litigation, on the plaintiff side, whilst the outcome of class actions binds not only them and their opponents but also the claimants that they represent, the absent class members. And yet, to date, there have been no comprehensive studies of class representatives in these three countries. The aim of this article is to partly address this significant lacuna in the international legal literature by providing the findings of an empirical study, that the authors have undertaken, of the persons that acted as class representatives in the class actions that were filed in the first 17 years of the operation of the class action procedure in the Federal Court of Australia. It is hoped that this article will prompt Canadian scholars to undertake similar studies with respect to Canadian class representatives.Dix mois avant que l’Ontario devienne la première province de common law canadienne à autoriser les recours collectifs à l’américaine, la Cour fédérale d’Australie autorisait ceux-ci. Dans ces deux pays, ainsi qu’aux États-Unis, les demandeurs nommés, communément appelés représentants, sont les seuls demandeurs formellement mêlés au litige du côté de la partie demanderesse, tandis que l’issue des recours collectifs lie non seulement les représentants et leurs adversaires, mais aussi les demandeurs qu’ils représentent, c’est-à-dire les personnes inscrites au recours collectif qui sont absentes. Pourtant, il n’y a eu à ce jour aucune étude approfondie sur ces représentants de groupes dans ces trois pays. L’objet du présent article est de combler en partie cette importante lacune dans la littérature juridique internationale en fournissant les conclusions d’une étude empirique effectuée par les auteurs et portant sur les représentants dans le cadre des recours collectifs introduits dans les 17 premières années du régime des recours collectifs devant la Cour fédérale d’Australie. Il est à espérer que le présent article incitera les chercheurs canadiens à entreprendre de telles études en ce qui concerne les représentants de groupes canadiens.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-185
Author(s):  
Brian Elzweig

This Article examines Congress’s decades-long attempt to ensure that securities class action lawsuits of national importance are litigated in federal courts. The intent is limiting strike suits. Congress attempted to curtail strike suits through the enactment of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“PSLRA”). The PSLRA required heightened pleading requirements to ensure the validity of federal securities class actions. Instead of solving the dilemma, plaintiffs circumvented the PSLRA by bringing fraud cases as state law claims. To combat the circumvention of the PSLRA, Congress enacted the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (“SLUSA”). SLUSA federally preempted state law claims based on alleged misrepresentations, untrue statements, or omissions of material facts, requiring them to be brought in federal court. However, SLUSA did not address the concurrent jurisdiction provision of the Securities Act of 1933. This created an anomaly whereby many federal claims under the 1933 Act were brought in state courts, while state fraud claims were required to be brought in federal court. Congress could have addressed this enigma when it enacted the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”). Instead, CAFA, which reformed class actions generally, exempted most securities class actions from its rules. In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Cyan v. Beaver County and allowed 1933 Act claims covered by SLUSA to continue to be brought in state courts. The Court was silent on non-covered securities. This Article recommends how Congress can accomplish its goal of forcing important securities class actions into federal courts.


Author(s):  
Michael Duffy ◽  
Vicki Waye

Common Fund Orders’ (CFOs) have had a significant effect on Australian third party-funded class actions by requiring all class members to make a contribution to the third-party litigation funder’s fee in the event of a successful outcome.  This altered past practice whereby only class members who had contracted with the litigation funder would be liable for such a contribution.  However in a 5:2 decision in BMW Australia Ltd v Brewster in 2019, the High Court cast some doubt on CFOs, determining that neither s 33ZF Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) nor s 183 Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) provided a legal basis for making CFOs at the outset of proceedings so as to secure litigation funding support.  In late 2020, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services recommended that legislation be enacted to ‘address uncertainty’ in Brewster in a manner that would enable CFOs to be made at settlement or judgment.  The authors canvass normative arguments as to the merits of CFOs and compare the alternative practice of making Funding Equalisation Orders (FEOs). They also consider the related issue of courts setting overall funding commissions.  Given the possibility of legislative intervention, they also review arguments as to the potential constitutional validity of CFOs, a matter that was raised, but received very limited treatment from the High Court in BMW.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Hasnidar '

This study aims to improve speaking skills of children aged 5-6 through methods Story Reading in TK Melati/ ABA 005 Pulau Balai. The method used is a Class Action Research. Class actions that researchers do the research is to use the method Story Reading to improve speaking skills of children aged 5-6 years in TK Melati TK Melati/ ABA 005 Pulau Balai, and is observed by the observer. Samples taken are TK Melati/ ABA 005 Pulau Balai with the number of children of 20 people, consisting of 13 men and 7 women. Data collection techniques in this research is through observation of teachers and children as well as data capability speaking children aged 5-6 years with use of methods Story Reading. Hipotesis in this study is if the method will be applicable Story Reading can improve speaking skills of children aged 5-6 years in TK Melati/ ABA Pulau Balai 005 can be enhanced through storytelling. Results of the research data obtained by using the method Story Reading can improve the ability to speak of children aged 5-6 years in TK Melati / ABA 005 Pulau Balai. The percentage increase in the ability to speak the child at the age of 5-6 years using Story Reading methods in TK Melati/ ABA 005 Pulau Balai, from initial data to the second cycle increased by 32.2%. The implication of this study is the use of methods Story Reading used properly, can improve speaking skills of children aged 5-6 years in TK Melati/ ABA 005 Pulau BalaiKeywords: story reading, speech


Author(s):  
Marta Postigo Asenjo

RESUMENEl sistema patriarcal no afecta exclusivamente al poder político y judicial, sino que afecta a la estructura interna de la sociedad, la identidad y las formas de vida de los individuos que en ella viven. Para comprender mejor como condiciona el sistema patriarcal las formas de vida y la visión que tienen los individuos de la realidad social, hemos de analizar el modo en que se extiende al orden institucional y lo determina mediante "tipificaciones" de hechos y de personas y mediante roles concretos, esteoreotipaciones sexiuales que obstaculizan el acceso a la esfera pública de la mujer, así como su reinserción en el mercado laboral, en suma, todo aquello que afecta al conocimiento común que comparten los miembros de una comunidad. El cambio hacia una mayor igualdad y una real democracia paritaria y compartida no es posible sin una paulatina educación y concienciación de la sociedad en su conjunto.PALABRAS CLAVEPATRIARCADO-TIPIFICACIÓN SOCIAL-IGUALDAD DE GÉNEROABSTRACTPatriarchalism is not only present in politics and the judicial system. It also affects the internal structure of society, above all the life and identitý of individuals. To understand better how it conditions their ways of life and the vision the individuals have of social reality, we should study how patriarchalism r3eaches the system of institutions and how this becomes determined by "typifications" of facts and people, and by certain roles or sexual stereotypes that hinder the access of women both to the public sphere and to tha labor market. It sum, everything that concerns the common knowledge that the members of a community share. The move towards more equality and towards a more egalitarian democracy heavily depends on the spread of civic education to the entire society.KEYWORDSPATRIARCHALISM-SOCIAL TYPIFICATION-GENDER EQUALITY


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document