Legal News

Class actions get more room to maneuver under Prop 64

By Richard Binder

The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that class actions over alleged fraud can go forward, even if it's impossible to tell whether every plaintiff was harmed by deceptive ads.

The ruling is important because it clarifies that Proposition 64, passed by the voters in 2004, doesn't prevent average citizens from acting as so-called private attorneys general in class actions under the state's unfair competition law. It's also a big hit at tobacco and other industries.

Smoker Willard Brown filed the class action against Philip Morris USA Inc. and several other tobacco manufacturers in 1997, accusing them of violating the state's unfair competition law by allegedly denying that smoking causes serious illnesses, such as cancer, and advertising cigarettes as non-addictive.

"This is a great day for the consumers of California," Mark Robinson, a partner in Newport Beach, Calif.'s Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson who represented the plaintiffs, said during a conference call. "The reality is that this gives the consumers rights to protect themselves from fraudulent advertising."

Full story at The Recorder.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).