Class actions have created substantial benefits for consumers who could bring individual claims.  Examples include Volkswagen’s $14.7 billion settlement to resolve claims over falsifying vehicle emission tests (click here), Toyota’s $1.1 billion settlement to resolve claims over its vehicles issues with sudden acceleration (click here), and a collective (and increasing) $604 million in settlements by various automotive parts manufacturers to resolve claims for price-fixing and bid-rigging (click here).  FCALA will frustrate the process that made these settlements possible, thus either delaying or denying relief to millions of consumers.  As many courts have recognized, “[t]he realistic alternative to a class action is not 17 million individual suits, but zero.”  Carnegie v. Household Int'l, Inc., 376 F.3d 656, 661 (7th Cir. 2004).     

[1]           To see the current text of this bill (H.R. 985) click here, and to see the Judiciary Committee Report click here .