America really hates lawsuits. It shouldn't.

In defense of the class-action lawsuit

Lawsuits have their benefits.
(Image credit: Wouter Tulp/Ikon Images/Corbis)

Are Americans too lawsuit happy? If you were to consult reams of commentary, pop culture, and political speeches, the response would no doubt be a resounding "yes." And if recent developments are any indication, you'd also get the same answer from some members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

There's the "Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2015," which requires that class-action suits show "that each proposed class member suffered the same type and scope of injury as the named class representative or representatives." Vague language, which in practice would give defendants in class-action suits a wedge to break up large groups of claimants up into much smaller groups based on any vast number of distinctions the defendant's lawyers can come up with. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will soon rule on a case, Campbell-Ewald Company v. Gomez, that could allow defendants to derail class-action suits by paying off the original "named plaintiff" and no one else.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.