Book contents
- The Cambridge International Handbook of Class Actions
- The Cambridge Handbook of Class Actions
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The United States
- 1 The US Class Action from a Utilitarian Perspective
- 2 Civil Rights, Access to Counsel, and Injunctive Class Actions in the United States
- 3 Class Action Nuisance Suits
- 4 How Many Class Actions Are Meritless?
- 5 The Future of Aggregate Litigation in the United States
- Part II The Americas
- Part III Europe
- Part IV Asia and the South Pacific
- Part V Middle East and Africa
4 - How Many Class Actions Are Meritless?
from Part I - The United States
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2021
- The Cambridge International Handbook of Class Actions
- The Cambridge Handbook of Class Actions
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The United States
- 1 The US Class Action from a Utilitarian Perspective
- 2 Civil Rights, Access to Counsel, and Injunctive Class Actions in the United States
- 3 Class Action Nuisance Suits
- 4 How Many Class Actions Are Meritless?
- 5 The Future of Aggregate Litigation in the United States
- Part II The Americas
- Part III Europe
- Part IV Asia and the South Pacific
- Part V Middle East and Africa
Summary
One of the most frequent criticisms of class action lawsuits is that they are often meritless. This is an important component of the campaign against class actions. If most class actions are meritless, then many of the virtues about private enforcement become moot: even if private lawyers are more effective than government bureaucrats at enforcing the law, if most of the enforcement efforts are misguided, why would we want them to be effective? The profit motive would simply be giving us more of something we don’t want. Better to have someone ineffectual than someone effectual when it comes to delivering bad stuff.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Class ActionsAn International Survey, pp. 59 - 70Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021