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: CAFA Law Blog - Information, cases and insights regarding the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005

Who? What? When? Where? Why? Three Scholars Discuss CAFA's Role Surrounding the Issue of Multidistrict Litigation.

Proceedings of the Tulane Law Review Symposium.  The Problem of Multidistrict Litigation, 82 Tul. L. Rev. 2225, 2369, and 2423 (June, 2008).

Admit it. You watched every single presidential (and vice-presidential) debate waiting with bated breath to see the candidates actually debate an issue rather than deliver a stump speech. Because we know you were disappointed (like us), we went and found something even better for you: A debate on Multidistrict Litigation! What makes this debate so great, you ask? CAFA gets thrown into the mix, and the parties are not afraid to use it.

In June of 2008, the Tulane Law Review published a three part series entitled The Problem of Multidistrict Litigation. Part one, “A View from the Panel: Part of the Solution” by Chief Judge John G. Heyburn II, United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (who also serves as the Chair of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation), focuses on the Judicial Panel’s role in coordinating and handling multi-district litigation. 

While the article does not focus on CAFA, the author does believe that CAFA lessened the attractiveness of the class action to the plaintiffs’ bar. The Judge obviously never saw how attractive a person can look in one of our CAFA Law Blog T-shirts!

Part two, “Recovering the Social Value of Jurisdictional Redundancy” by Alexandra D. Lahav, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, addresses the benefit of multicentered litigation. Opposing centralization of lawsuits on the whole, the author laments that CAFA expanded federal court jurisdiction “to encompass essentially any class action.” Apparently the author did not read this post on our CAFA Blog.

Robin J. Effron, an assistant professor at Brooklyn School of Law, wrote part three, “Disaster-Specific Mechanisms for Consolidation.” This section juxtaposes CAFA and the Multiparty, Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act in the context of a national event. Specifically, the author focuses on the importance of centralized litigation in the context of events like September 11th and Katrina, and how CAFA can help centralize litigation.

Full post as published by CAFA Law Blog - Information, cases and insights regarding the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).