July 19, 2007

The National Law Journal takes note of a trend:

Plaintiffs lawyers are filing an increasing number of class actions under state consumer-protection laws in conjunction with, or in place of, traditional personal injury class actions, which have become too difficult in recent years to certify.

The trend is so pronounced that in some litigation -- such as in recent class actions involving the potential health dangers of Teflon cookware and alleged hearing loss associated with Apple Inc.'s iPod -- plaintiffs lawyers haven't filed a single injury claim.

Suits alleging injury are typically too disparate in their facts and circumstances to warrant class treatment, but suits demanding, say, a refund of money spent on a product may be eligible for certification and thus roll up into a sizable financial ball.