Center for Class Action Fairness

October 21, 2013|Center for Class Action Fairness, Class Action, Marek v. Lane, Martin v. Blessing, Ted Frank

Class Action Twofer

That doesn’t happen every day: a non-profit shop, Ted Frank’s excellent Center for Class Action Fairness, has two cert petitions pending in the Supreme Court, and both are on this week’s re-list watch. Marek v. Lane presents the question of whether a class action settlement that provides cy prez relief that’s of absolutely no use to the class—and no other relief to that class—is nonetheless fair, adequate, and reasonable. Answer, no. (I’ve discussed the case in an earlier post.) Here’s the QP in Martin v. Blessing: Whether an objecting class member – whose antitrust claims have been waived by a settlement negotiated by…

August 26, 2013|CCAF, Center for Class Action Fairness, Facebook, Ted Frank

Facebook’s Class Act

by Michael S. Greve|

My buddy Ted Frank founded and runs the Center for Class Action Fairness. (Disclosure: I am a member of CCAF’s Board of Directors.) CCAF’s mission is to blow up collusive class actions and settlements—you know, actions where the class members get worthless coupons or nothing at all, while the lawyers walk away with millions in fees. When CCAF learns of impending agreements of this, sort it objects on behalf of class members. There’s a cottage industry of professional objectors, but they’re interested in money and so are usually cut into the deal. CCAF is a non-profit firm, and Ted can’t be bought off: he insists on settlements that actually benefit the class, and on lawyers’ fees that bear some rational relation to those benefits.

CCAF has racked up an impressive record of accomplishments (some listed on the website), and the trial lawyers don’t like Ted. Many corporations don’t like him, either. (Whaddaya mean, we’re supposed to fight nuisance suits and/or compensate actual victims, as opposed to conniving with their class counsel?) Among those companies is Facebook.

August 26, 2013|Arbitration, Attorney Fees, Center for Class Action Fairness, Class Actions

Reforming Class Action Abuse

by Ted Frank|

This Liberty Law Talk is with Ted Frank on reforming class action litigation and, in particular, the settlements plaintiffs receive under the current system. Frank, the founder of the Center for Class Action Fairness, argues that class-action suits contribute little to plaintiffs and substantially benefit only their lawyers. Monitoring and agency problems reign because most plaintiffs lack the incentives to ensure that the class's lawyers are actually representing their interests and not the lawyer's monetary desires. We also discuss the turn to arbitration by companies as an exit from class actions and Frank's work that contests egregious attorney fee awards…

May 30, 2012|Center for Class Action Fairness, Ted Frank

Class Act

by Michael S. Greve|

My buddy (and former AEI colleague) Ted Frank, who blogs at Point of Law, runs the Center for Class Action Fairness. CCAF’s sole and wholly salutary purpose is to blow up collusive, plutocrats-of-the-world-unite-and-screw-the consumers settlements between class action lawyers and corporate defendants who, if it weren’t for the trial bar, would deserve everything the trial lawyers dish out to them (and then some). (Disclosure: I serve on CCAF’s Board.) The world hates Ted but once in a while, he finds an impartial forum, as here. To summarize one of the funniest appellate arguments I’ve yet heard: Mr. Frank: Your Honors (Judges Bauer,…

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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