Miers, Microsoft and Buggy Software

Slingshot.org has identified that SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers once represented Microsoft. In Microsoft Corp. v Manning, et al, No. 06-95-00058-CV (Texarkana), the Company was sued in a class action for distributing faulty compression software for MS DOS 6. The software destroyed data occasionally. Microsoft then charged purchasers for an update  that fixed the problem. My hunch is the charge only covered the cost of media, shipping and handling.

IMHO, Miers did a great job in getting the class, defined as everyone who owned the defective software and purchased the the update, decertified. Essentially Miers argued that a class of individuals who were not harmed by the  software bug -- who lost no data -- should not be able to claim damages from the Company. Read all about it.

Imagine the consequences if software companies faced class action lawsuits based on a cause of action that was nothing more than selling (and then) fixing buggy software for personal computers.