In an SF Chronicle editorial piece entitled “Class-Action Advocates Deserve Fair Share Of Settlements”, Executive Director of legal nonprofit the Impact Fund Jocelyn D. Larkin presents a straightforward and cogent argument supporting the class action legal device.
Focusing on the example of a wage theft case against Robert Half International, the piece notes that class actions
promote equal pay for equal work, challenge race discrimination, safeguard the environment and deter corporate fraud and hidden fees.
Ms. Larkin goes on to note that these cases also provide access to the courts for everybody — “not just big corporations,” and save time and money as thousands of claims can achieve resolution in a single case. Critics often challenge the attorney fee awards in class cases, which can from the outside seem disproportionate.
As Ms. Larkin notes, “At the heart of the issue is a practical problem: how to get someone — an attorney — to risk spending the time and money necessary to help victims and hold law breakers accountable. In class actions, attorneys get paid only if and when they are successful, and often after many years and substantial investment of their own money in fronting expenses. The answer, under California law, is to provide fair compensation to the advocates who undertake and win these David-versus-Goliath struggles.”
You can read the full piece on the San Francisco Chronicle website (subscription). As Ms. Larkin notes in the piece’s conclusion, the class action device is under constant attack by corporate interests — a sure testament to its effectiveness. Such attempts to undermine this aggregate approach to large or complex cases can only end up depriving ordinary citizens of equal access to justice.
