Charles Silver · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 754 (2011) Using the familiar insight that principals and agents can jointly gain by reducing agency costs, this Essay argues (1) that lawyers hoping to attract clients should seek to improve the quality of representation in mass tort cases and to signal their reliability and... Read More

Thomas D. Morgan · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 734 (2011) This Essay discusses the approach the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation take to the issue of aggregate settlements. Contrary to Rule 1.8(g) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and contrary to most of the decided... Read More

Nancy J. Moore · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 717 (2011) There is little discussion of legal ethics in the American Law Institute’s recently adopted Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation, either in the blackletter rules or the comments. The primary exception is that the Principles devote several sections to the so-called... Read More

Lester Brickman · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 700 (2011) This Essay explores the ethical issues that arise for plaintiffs’ lawyers involved in nonclass aggregate settlements. Rule 1.8(g) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct requires that each client in an aggregate settlement must give their informed consent to the settlement amount... Read More

Judith Resnik · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 628 (2011) A half century ago, class actions were controversial. Aggregation was seen as permissible only under exceptional circumstances that could justify departures from the obligations of individual voice, participation, and control of the then-dominant procedural framework. The adoption in 2009 by the American Law... Read More

Robert G. Bone · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 577 (2011) Adequacy of representation is a central concept in the law of case aggregation. Not surprisingly, it plays an important role in the final report of the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation project. Ever since the seminal case... Read More

David Betson & Jay Tidmarsh · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 542 (2011) This Article examines the ALI’s proposal to permit opt-out rights when remedies and “divisible,” but not to permit them when remedies are “indivisible.” Starting from the ground up, the Article employs economic analysis to determine what the optimal size of... Read More

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 506 (2011) Despite a rise in the number of personal injury and product liability cases consolidated through multidistrict litigation, a decline in class certification motions, and several newsworthy nonclass settlements, such as the $4.85 billion Vioxx settlement and estimated $1.2 billion Zyprexa settlements, little... Read More

Edward F. Sherman · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 483 (2011) Plaintiff class counsel sometimes seek class certification for only some of the possible claims to which the class members are entitled. The reasons may include to avoid (or take advantage of) venue or jurisdictional limitations, to prevent removal to federal court of... Read More

Linda S. Mullenix · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 448 (2011) In a significant appeal decided March 31, 2010—and largely ignored by the media—a plurality of Supreme Court Justices in Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P.A. v. Allstate Insurance Co. rescued federal class actions from withering demise at the hands of the states. The... Read More