June 01, 2007

Victor M. Diaz, Jr., who has served as vice-chair of ATLA's aviation section among other honors in representing the plaintiff's bar, writes in Florida's Daily Business Review taking issue with some of his colleagues' doomsaying about the Class Action Fairness Act, which he says has proved "no calamity after all":

More than two years after President Bush signed CAFA into law, these concerns are proving to be greatly exaggerated. CAFA should not be feared by the plaintiffs bar.

While the days of cases filed in remote, plaintiff-friendly state court venues may be over, CAFA has led to better representation of classes by plaintiffs attorneys and better outcomes for class members. On the whole, the potential shift of nearly all class actions to federal court has elevated the class action bar and meant better quality judicial review of corporate class-wide abuses.

As with Congress's earlier reform of shareholder suits, the major effect seems to be not to choke off litigation, but to improve its average quality.