Three Urgent Consumer Class Action Topics with Paul Bland of Public Justice

To discuss these issues, it was my pleasure to interview F. Paul Bland, Jr., Executive Director of Public Justice, an organization that pursues “high impact lawsuits to combat social and economic injustice, protect the Earth’s sustainability, and challenge predatory corporate conduct and government abuses.” Paul has argued and won more than 40 cases that led to reported decisions for consumers, employees or whistleblowers, including one victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, and has won one or more cases in six of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the high courts of 10 different states.

This podcast is the audio companion to the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation, a collaborative project between HB and the Fastcase legal research family, which includes Full Court Press, Law Street Media, Docket Alarm and, most recently, Judicata. If you have comments or wish to participate in one our projects, or want to tell me how insightful and informative Paul is, please drop me a note at Editor@LitigationConferences.com.

We hope you enjoy the interview, and how I slipped in mention of Schrödinger’s cat which, as everyone knows (that’s sarcasm and self-deprecation), is a thought experiment that illustrates an apparent paradox of quantum superposition.

Class actions can be an invaluable tool when consumers need to level the playing field in disputes with corporations. 

Two important class action cases are currently before the Supreme Court.  One case, TransUnion v. Ramirez, involves innocent consumers who were erroneously added to the government’s watch list for terrorists and drug smugglers. [Note: We recorded before the Supreme Court handed down its ruling that only plaintiffs concretely harmed by a defendant’s statutory violation have Article III standing to seek damages against that private defendant in federal court.]

In the second, Goldman Sachs v. Arkansas Teachers, consumers seek to fend off a decision that  could limit securities class actions against companies that make generic statements about integrity before a drop in stock prices.

Another important issue (not currently before the high court) is mass and forced arbitration,  something some observers say substantially impedes the ability of consumers’ and employees’  to challenge corporations.