August 21, 2007

As has been reported here and elsewhere, France has been moving to adopt procedures permitting class action lawsuits. Business Insurance (Aug. 6, no free link) quotes Cedric Musso, manager for institutional relations at French consumer body Union Federale des Consummateurs -- Que Choisir, who is among the consumer advocates who have been consulted by the new Sarkozy government on the measure. Musso's group strongly supports such an expansion of the law, but at the same time approves of constraints:

"We don't want an American law with its excesses -- no contingency fees for lawyers or elected judges and jury trials. There would be a series of brakes on abuses with professional judges."

It's hard to imagine a major consumer group in this country expressing a similarly critical perspective toward those excesses.