Supreme Court rules that companies can block class-action lawsuits!

And one more ruling against the people and for the big corporations raping America.

Supreme Court rules that companies can block class-action lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday handed businesses such as AT&T Inc a major victory by upholding the use of arbitration for customer disputes rather than allowing claims to be brought together as a group.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that an AT&T unit could enforce a provision in its customer contracts requiring individual arbitration and preventing the pooling together of claims into a class-action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

Companies generally prefer arbitration as a less expensive way of settling consumer disputes, as opposed to costly class actions, which allow customers to band together and can result in large monetary awards.

And if you think it's really no big deal...

Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick said it may be the most important class action case ever decided by the Supreme Court.

"Because companies can ask all of their consumers, employees, and perhaps even shareholders to sign arbitration agreements, this decision has the potential to permit companies to escape class action liability in almost all of their activities," he said.

Deepak Gupta, an attorney at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen who represented the couple, denounced the decision and said class actions had been an essential tool to achieve justice in U.S. society.

"The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a crushing blow to American consumers and employees, ruling that companies can ban class actions in the fine print of contracts," he said.

Class action lawsuits makes it expensive for big companies to screw people over. Without class action lawsuits, VIOX would still be on the market, ect... the only thing that forces corporations to do the right thing is when it COSTS THEM MONEY... a LOT of it. And without class action lawsuits, it will be impossible to make them pay enough to change their ways when they screw people.

Biggest class action lawsuits in history :
Top Class Action Lawsuits

Master Tobacco Settlement

This is the top class action lawsuit in history as far as I am concerned. It was settled in 1998 for a whopping $206 billion to be paid over a 25 year period. Each state in the Union represented by the state’s Attorney General filed a suit against six of the world’s largest tobacco companies. The companies involved were Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, Lorillard Tobacco Company, Philip Morris Incorporated, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

Enron :

Enron Class Action Lawesuit

This case was settled in 2006 for $7.2 billion, which is a staggering figure. The investors in this company filed their class action suit under both federal and state security laws against Enron Corporation, individual Enron officers and directors, Enron’s accountant Arthur Anderson, individual Arthur Anderson partners and employees, and Enron’s former law firm Vinson & Elkins.

Like the World com case below, fraud was at the center of this case as well. They were just lying and “cooking” the books as they say.

World Com :

World Com Lawsuit

The case was settled in 2005 for $6.2 billion dollars which was music to the ears of everyone involved. The organizations involved were the investors who held World Com stock from April 29th, 1999 to June 25, 2002. The level of fraud on the part of the company and individual employees Bernard Ebbers (CEO), Scott Sullivan (CFO) David Myers (Controller) and Buford Yates (Accounting Director) was disgusting. They paid through the nose for it.

Katrina :

$21 Million Dollar Katrina Class Action Lawsuit

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was one of the worst natural disasters of all time in the United States. Many of the people involved lost everything. It seemed like that area of the country in the south would never recover.

What was worst about this situation is the fact that many of the insurance companies in this area didn’t insure people against this sort of damage. Therefore, the people involved lost everything. However, they did not take the news sitting down and formed a class action lawsuit against the three Lousiana levee boards and their insurers.

In 1999 :

1999 Oct 8, A damage award to State Farm auto insurance customers swelled to nearly $1.2 billion after a judge in Illinois ruled that the nation's largest auto insurer committed fraud by using generic auto-body repair parts. The $730 million award of actual ...1999 Oct 8, A damage award to State Farm auto insurance customers swelled to nearly $1.2 billion after a judge in Illinois ruled that the nation's largest auto insurer committed fraud by using generic auto-body repair parts. The $730 million award of actual and punitive damages came on top of a jury's $456 million verdict in the same class-action lawsuit.

2002 :

Aug 15, 2002 - The lawyers studied all the documents I collected, and on August 15, 2002, they filed the largest class-action lawsuit in American history in the Federal District Court in Washington DC, asking for one trillion dollars damages against the Saudis. The lawsuit ...The lawyers studied all the documents I collected, and on August 15, 2002, they filed the largest class-action lawsuit in American history in the Federal District Court in Washington DC, asking for one trillion dollars damages against the Saudis. The lawsuit said essentially that all these Saudi banks had one thing in common. They were bribing Osama bin Ladin 300 million dollars a year to stay out of Saudi Arabia and go blow up someone else.

Freaking Supreme Court... bunch of sell outs, all of them.

In a class action lawsuit the only winners are the lawyers.

As a member of a class action at best you'll get a nickel in return while the lawyers make millions.
Where's the justice in that.
I'd rather have the arbitration. At least there I can negotiate.

Thomas Jefferson heavily criticized the Courts, I disagreed with him for a long time. I believed honestly that if the politicians are bought our nation still can rest its protections in the hands of the courts. If proven true, today marks the day all three branches of our government have officially been taken from us.

"In God We Trust"... because we have nothing else to trust in.

I would like to note that many class-actions lawsuits are what is ruining this country. But we should still have the ability to pursue them in the court of law. If they want real change then alter the current laws to make it more fair and demand that whoever loses a class-action court case must pay the costs.

Posted 10 hours ago and still on the front page

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by studio500
Posted 10 hours ago and still on the front page

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Doesn't matter; that one was posted in BAN, this one in a topical forum.

Due to some obscure metaphysical law known only to the mods, the two threads are able to coexist without bringing about the end of the universe.

reply to post by Vitchilo

All of them? It sounds to me like 5 of them are corporate water carriers and four of them are not. Now who, I wonder, appointed the 5 corporate/activist justices who ruled for this and who exactly are they? Hmmmmm...that's a very familiar 5-4 split. I think I'll guess and see if I'm correct in who these justices might be. Is anyone else up for guessing?

Originally posted by grey580
In a class action lawsuit the only winners are the lawyers.

As a member of a class action at best you'll get a nickel in return while the lawyers make millions.
Where's the justice in that.
I'd rather have the arbitration. At least there I can negotiate.

Exactly! I don't know what is worse, greedy corporations, or sleezy lawyers launching baseless lawsuits against large companies that are seen to have deep pockets. Usually the thinking is, they can squeeze some money out of the company to keep things out of the media.

Originally posted by FortAnthem

Originally posted by studio500
Posted 10 hours ago and still on the front page

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Doesn't matter; that one was posted in BAN, this one in a topical forum.

Due to some obscure metaphysical law known only to the mods, the two threads are able to coexist without bringing about the end of the universe.

Now that was funny!!!

This is no surprise BTW. The Corps have owned our derrieres for a long time now.