Have you ever wondered how to join a class action lawsuit? It might seem like a convenient avenue to seek recourse for a harm you experienced. In theory, class actions allow groups of individuals who have been wronged by a company or organization to band together and pursue justice in a single, consolidated case. However, in practice, class actions often fail to deliver on their promise of efficiency and fairness. We’ll explore the problems with class action lawsuits and why they continue to be in dire need of reform. After reading about the troublesome U.S. class action lawsuit system, you li ..read more

The bankruptcy system is a simpler, more effective means of providing relief to current and future tort claimants than the mass tort litigation system. ILR’s latest research proves this point, beginning with a discussion of the serious deficiencies in multidistrict litigations (MDLs) and class actions when it comes to aggregating assets and equitably distributing relief to current and future injured claimants. The paper then discusses the bankruptcy mechanism’s comparative strength in consolidating assets, using the experience of asbestos bankruptcy trusts as an empirical proof point, and desc ..read more

Did you know ILR has its own podcast? Cause for Action debuted in 2019 and has steadily grown its following, with more than 700 downloads and 3,500 listens. Cause for Action covers important legal reform topics to give listeners a deep dive into how the civil justice system impacts consumers and businesses. Check out the top five episodes throughout the past few years, and subscribe to Cause for Action wherever you listen to your podcast. 1. Nuclear Verdicts Create Litigation “Vortex” for Trucking Industry Nathan Morris, ILR’s senior vice president for legal reform advocacy, talks with Le ..read more

You probably have heard of class action lawsuits, right? Class actions were meant to be an exception to a rule that hurt parties must make their claims in courts individually and that only the parties named in lawsuits may be eligible for the award. While that principle remains the general law, more and more often we see class actions being used to allow an attorney and their hand-picked named plaintiff to assert in one lawsuit the claims of a loosely defined group of unnamed individuals without their prior knowledge or consent. This unfortunately all-too-common practice is known as an opt-out ..read more

When you read the word “harm,” what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, your first thought is probably a physical injury – a broken bone, a cut, a concussion, or something like that. If you stretch a little further, you might think about loss of money, damage to property, or even damage to reputation. What if a website gave other people the impression you were wealthy, highly educated, and married with children, but you weren’t any of those things? Is that “harm?” It may seem like a silly hypothetical, but it was the dispute at the center of one of the most impactful decisions of the la ..read more

In this episode of Cause for Action, Nathan Morris, senior vice president, legal reform advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, is joined by Lee Parsley, the general counsel of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, to discuss some of the issues the trucking industry faces and what legislators can do to make sure that excessive lawsuits don’t shut down this critical industry.  Lee and Nathan also discuss how the trucking industry faces more “nuclear verdicts,” which are massive jury verdicts worth $10 million or more, than most other industries. The post Episode 24 ..read more

The drone industry has continued to grow in recent years in both the commercial and consumer markets. As with the legal regime for any new technology, drone laws need time to evolve as courts, state and federal governments, and legal experts wrestle with how to fit the new possibilities offered by drones into existing legal doctrines.   Drones provide society with numerous benefits and unique ways to solve problems and improve traditional processes – and of course, consumers love them for the fun recreational activities they offer. According to ILR’s research report, Torts of the Fut ..read more

Did you know ILR has its own podcast? Cause for Action debuted in 2019 and has steadily grown its following, with more than 700 downloads and 3,500 listens. Cause for Action covers important legal reform topics to give listeners a deep dive into how the civil justice system impacts consumers and businesses. Check out the top five episodes throughout the past few years, and subscribe to Cause for Action wherever you listen to your podcast 1. Nuclear Verdicts Create Litigation “Vortex” for Trucking Industry Nathan Morris, ILR’s senior vice president for legal reform advocacy, talks with Lee ..read more

As the legal reform community looks ahead to a busy few months to cap off 2022, this edition of the ILR Research Review offers analyses and solutions for some of the most significant problems in civil litigation today. Specifically, this edition of the review Review includes: An analysis of the many flaws in the U.S. class action system and suggested measures to correct them A data-driven discussion of the destructive and disproportionate impact that the federal False Claims Act’s mandatory per-violation civil penalty has on the health care industry An exploration of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ..read more

The class action system needs a lot of work. Unfair, Inefficient, and Unpredictable: Class Action Flaws and the Road to Reform closely examines the many dysfunctions in the class action system and offers solutions to correct them. ILR’s research walks the reader through evidence and examples showing that class actions fail to serve their intended purpose; that they benefit attorneys more than consumers; that they are open to abuse; and that they are fundamentally inefficient at delivering compensation to wronged consumers. The paper concludes by offering a set of ..read more