Personal Injury Law

Kudo's to the Third Circuit for Preserving Class Actions

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

Homa v. American Express represented a major victory in the win column for protection of  consumer rights regarding class actions. According to the Consumer Watch Dog Group Public Justice, this recent victory will make a major difference nationwide, and will serve as a means to stop corporate attempts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce class action bans.

In Homa v. American Express Company, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejects the credit card company's arguments that federal preemption, its mandatory arbitration clause banning class actions, and the Utah choice-of-law provision in American Express's agreement would allow it to bar New Jersey consumers from bringing class actions against it. The decision also dismisses -- as inapplicable dicta -- language in an earlier Third Circuit decision that has prompted several U.S. district courts in New Jersey to dismiss class actions in the last year. Companies throughout America have been using language from this earlier Third Circuit case to argue that the lower courts disagree about -- and the U.S. Supreme Court must decide -- whether state laws preserving class actions are preempted, i.e., wiped out, by federal law.

This decision has a huge impact on consumer issues including mass torts and deceptive and unfair trade practices that are practiced by large corporations.

Click here to read the decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).