USA Today has a front-page story on magnet jurisdictions. (Martin Kasindorf, “Robin Hood is alive in court”, Mar. 8). It leaves unrebutted the false claim by Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook that “federal courts are judicial hellholes” because “the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago recently denied class-action status to people who allegedly were harmed when Firestone tires blew out on their Ford Explorer SUVs”; the class that the Seventh Circuit rejected was a nationwide class of all Explorer owners, including those who had suffered no harm. Consumers who were injured by Firestone tires have many lawsuits pending unaffected by the Seventh Circuit’s decision; indeed, as the Seventh Circuit pointed out, anyone who had a significant injury would likely have been advised to opt out of a class action rather than risk having their claim subsumed by the class action. (In re Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. Tires Products Liability Litigation opinion; see also Jul. 8).
It is telling that Ms. Claybrook is suggesting that a court that refuses to countenance a class action on behalf of people who have suffered no harm is “anti-consumer”–it demonstrates that to her, “pro-consumer” means a pure wealth transfer from shareholders to lawyers.
USA Today also understates the problem of Madison County (see Sept. 26, Jan. 5, etc.): it’s not just that class actions have gone to 107 in 2003 from 60 in 2001; in 1998, there were only three class actions filed in Madison County. “There’s some merit to the accusations of bias in Madison County, says retired circuit judge John DeLaurenti, who heard cases there for 27 years until 2000. ‘I don’t know if it’s a judicial hellhole, but just figure it out,’ he says. ‘When people come from hither and thither to file these cases, there’s gotta be an inducement, doesn’t there? They’re not coming to see beautiful Madison County.'”
Disclosure: My law firm represented Ford in the Firestone class action litigation before the Seventh Circuit; my colleague, John Beisner, is quoted by USA Today.
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