CORPORATIONS MAY RUE THE DAY THEY FOUGHT FOR CLASS-ACTION REFORM

"When supporters of class-action 'reform'...talk
about the alleged horrors of class-action litigation,
they frequently hold up the tiny, impoverished, and
mostly black Jefferson County, Mississippi, as
Exhibit A. 'Reformers' allege that current state laws
allow plaintiffs' lawyers to 'forum shop' for a
friendly court, such as Jefferson County, where the
itty-bitty courthouse doesn't even posses a
computerized docketing system - yet where Circuit
Court Judge Lamar Pickard has presided over a number
of multimillion-dollar, mass lawsuits filed against
some of the nation's biggest corporations....The new
class-action bill would circumvent Pickard, a former
member of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association
board of governors, and push most mass torts to the
federal district court level....The business
community, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
contends that the federal system will bring 'common
sense' and 'balance' to the world of mass torts....
But some plaintiffs' lawyers who will be impacted
heavily by the bill are not entirely convinced that
federalizing class actions will eliminate them. 'I
think this is a classic case of 'Be careful what you
ask for,' says Elizabeth Cabraser, a prominent
California plaintiffs' attorney who specializes in
mass litigation. 'I'm a great believer in the federal judiciary. They are going to certify meritorious
cases. Federal judges are not political hacks. This
is an added burden that's being put upon them, but
they'll deal with that. I think federal courts won't
go along with any purported plan to sabotage class
actions.' Despite his opposition to the bill,
Starcher, too, suspects that corporations may be
surprised to discover that plaintiffs' lawyers will
find a way around it. Indeed, some plaintiffs'
attorneys have already observed that under the new
law, corporate defendants could end up fighting a lot
more litigation, rather than less. The bill forces
class actions into federal court if fewer than a
third of the plaintiffs are from the same state in
which the case was filed (for instance, if the suit
was filed against a company in the state where it is headquartered, but many of the injured parties live
elsewhere). Lawyers could simply file smaller class
actions in many states - with only state residents as plaintiffs, rather than one national case - forcing the company to defend itself in far more forums.