Howard Erichson was quoted in Bloomberg about the recent class action overhaul bill.
Speaking at another event the same day, Professor Howard Erichson said there is a “deep skepticism of class actions” underlying the bill. Erichson specializes on ethics of complex litigation at Fordam University School of Law in New York.
He acknowledged that class-action practice is flawed, but said the bill “takes a sledgehammer to problems that require chiseling.”
“I would vote no if I were a senator,” he said. “The bill makes no attempt to preserve what’s useful about class actions.”
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But defense attorney Andrew Grossman responded, “When you talk to people in the trenches, you recognize a lot of pathologies in the system and broken incentives.”
“The bill is a pretty sensible way to change those incentives,” Grossman, partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP in Washington, said.
“There are areas in the bill for compromise at the margins, but there are also lots of good provisions,” he said.
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Erichson and Grossman spoke March 31 at a Federalist Society teleforum.