Does Anyone Care About Class Actions?

The Houston Chronicle reported Monday that very few of the supposed-beneficiaries of a massive cosmetics class action knew or cared about the lawsuit.  The suit netted about $25 million for the lawyers involved, and, for the class members, what the reporter referred to as a "trick or treat" at shopping malls around the country.  This fanned the flames of the debate, discussed in the article, of whether there's any real purpose to these suits, other than to make lawyers rich.  On the other side of the debate, one law professor told reporters: “It doesn’t matter if the people involved didn’t know about the case. It ought to be about deterring misconduct by business.”  One thing was for certain: the consumers were happy to get free stuff. 

--Counseller/jtf