House Bill to Curtail Class Actions Introduced

Last week, Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) introduced H.R. 1927, ironically entitled “Fairness in Class Action Litigation 2015.”

The bill provides:

“(a) IN GENERAL.—No Federal court shall certify any proposed class unless the party seeking to maintain a class action affirmatively demonstrates through admissible evidentiary proof that each proposed class member suffered an injury of the same type and extent as the injury of the named class representative or representatives.

“(b) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘injury’ means the alleged impact of the defendant’s actions on the plaintiff’s body or property.”

It seems to me that this bill would eviscerate class actions. 

There will be a hearing on this bill before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, this Wednesday, April 29, 2015, at 3:00 p.m.