Entrepreneurial litigation : its rise, fall, and future
By: Coffee, John C
Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, c2015.Description: viii, 307 p. ; 25 cm.ISBN: 9780674736795Subject(s): Class actions (Civil procedure) -- United States | Class actions (Civil procedure) | -- United StatesDDC classification: 347.7353 CO EN Online resources: Location MapItem type | Home library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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REGULAR | University of Wollongong in Dubai Main Collection | 347.7353 CO EN (Browse shelf) | Available | T0058266 |
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347.5357 JU DI The judicial codex : | 347.73 LE GA The legal system : | 347.73 RH LE Legal ethics stories / | 347.7353 CO EN Entrepreneurial litigation : | 347.736 FO RE Forensic accounting and finance : | 347.7367 CR FO Forensic and investigative accounting / | 347.896 MA NA Manager's guide to IT law / |
Litigation and democracy --
The origins of entrepreneurial litigation --
The derivative action --
The emergence of the class action --
Merger and acquisition class actions : litigation on steroids --
The mass tort class action: quick rise, faster fall --
A prelude to class action reform --
The needed reforms --
Public enforcement and the private attorney general --
The globalization of the class action: can the private attorney general be exported? --
Conclusion : toward a semi-private attorney general.
"Uniquely in the United States, lawyers litigate large cases on behalf of many claimants who could not afford to sue individually. In these class actions, attorneys act typically as risk-taking entrepreneurs, effectively hiring the client rather than acting as the client's agent. Lawyer-financed, lawyer-controlled, and lawyer-settled, such entrepreneurial litigation invites lawyers to sometimes act more in their own interest than in the interest of their clients. And because class litigation aggregates many claims, defendants object that its massive scale amounts to legalized extortion. Yet, without such devices as the class action and contingent fees, many meritorious claims would never be asserted. John Coffee examines the dilemmas surrounding entrepreneurial litigation in a variety of specific context, including derivative actions, securities class actions, merger litigation, and mass tort litigation. His concise history traces how practices developed since the early days of the Republic, exploded at the end of the twentieth century, and then waned as Supreme Court decisions and legislation sharply curtailed the reach of entrepreneurial litigation. In an evenhanded account, Coffee assesses both the strengths and weaknesses of entrepreneurial litigation and proposes a number of reforms to achieve a fairer balance. His goal is to save the class action, not discard it, and to make private enforcement of law more democratically accountable. Taking a global perspective, he also considers the feasibility of exporting a modified form of entrepreneurial litigation to other countries that are today seeking a mechanism for aggregate representation"--Unedited summary from book jacket.