|  | | 2006 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
Plaintiffs' Suits Against Companies Decline
Paul Davies – The Wall Street Journal
AP DataStream. August 28, 2006
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EXCERPT: Companies involved in many of the largest and most controversial legal clashes of recent decades are seeing a sharp decline in the number of lawsuits filed against them. In recent months, judges have dismissed or challenged tens of thousands of individual cases, in matters ranging from claims of lung damage from asbestos and silica dust to allegations that the diet drug fen-phen caused heart problems. Moreover, fewer new claims like these are being launched, as state and federal courts and legislators attack the methods used by some attorneys to round up plaintiffs for large-scale litigation. There is no comprehensive count of claims, but a look at several key areas _ particularly asbestos and silica claims _ shows large-scale litigation against single products, known as "mass torts" and "class actions," is on the wane. "The future of mass torts and class actions is very much in question," said Geoffrey Miller, a New York University School of Law professor who teaches a course on issues in large-scale litigation. This year, new securities-fraud class-action lawsuits are down 45 percent, to 61 through June from 111 in the first half of 2005, according to a new study. Among the factors behind that drop: the federal indictment in May of the leading securities class-action law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, which is accused of paying individuals to file suits. The firm filed just 17 lawsuits in the first six months of 2006, down from 55 in 2005's first half _ and hasn't filed a class-action case since its indictment. |
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