An introduction to the law and economics of class action litigation

Abstract

Litigation, Class action lawsuit, Social costs, Positive- and negative-expected value claims, K10, K40, K41, K49,

Corporate litigation and executive turnover

“…The second set of key independent variables is designed to capture the role of lawsuit merit. Given the large number of frivolous complaints that permeate the US judicial system (Choi, 2007;Ferris et al, 2007;Ulen, 2011), we use the outcomes of the lawsuits as a proxy for their legal merit (Cox et al, 2008;Eisenberg and Lanvers, 2009). A lawsuit of lesser merit is less likely to be followed by corporate governance changes.…”

The Economics of Class Actions and Class Action Waivers

“…However, I use the term anyway to remain with terms familiar in the literature on the economics litigation. The same terminological approach is adopted in Ulen (2011). response to an injury, the cost the injurer bears when he takes care is the sum of the cost of taking care, the expected liability to the victim, and the expected cost of litigation defense: x + qc d + qv.…”

The simple economics of class action: private provision of club and public goods

“…In fact, class action is a legal device employed today for tackling torts in a wide array of cases, including financial market and securities fraud in recent times Ramello 2005 andUlen 2011). However, from its inception class action was infused with a broader political agenda, extending beyond the tort domain to embrace matters such as civil rights (in particular segregation), health protection, consumer protection, environmental questions and many others (Hensler et al 2000).…”