Should Christians be involved in class action lawsuits? Why or why not?

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Patrick
OPC
MDiv, RTS Jackson.

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.

<---- Class action litigation paralegal.

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"On land, at sea, at home, abroad, / I smoke my pipe and worship God." -- J.S. Bach

Virtually every class action lawsuit is legalized theft by trial lawyers.

Sorry, but I'd rather live homeless and hungry than have anything to do with them. All you need to know is that the lawyers get rich off them, regardless of the actual case.

Can you say John Edwards?

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Fredrick T. Greco
Senior Pastor, Christ Church PCA (Katy, TX)
Christ Church Blog

"The heart is the main thing in true religion...It is the hinge and turning-point in the condition of man's soul. If the heart is alive to God and quickened by the Spirit, the man is a living Christian. If the heart is dead and has not the Spirit, the man is dead before God." (J.C. Ryle)

I general I agree. There is one industry that deserves a wave of lawsuits. Big Tobacco. They sell a defective product (what else do you call something that kills about 50% of it's users) they use chemicals like ammonia to "free up" nicotine to make it more bioavailable to the human body, (read free-basing), it causes more than lung cancer, there are new links between nicotine and MS, as well as a group of auto-immune diseases. I have to admit, I would not care if they took a BIG hit.

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~etexas~

I have absolutely no sympathy even for tobacco class action suits. There have been warning labels since the 60s, and the things you speak about are common knowledge. No body is putting a gun to someone's head to make them smoke. It is a very small step from tobacco lawsuits to fast food lawsuits, to just about anything else.

If you have been damaged, then you can seek a remedy at law. But class action lawsuits are ways to avoid ordinary burdens of proof, and designed to enrich lawyers.

So is it the concept of class action suits themselves that is wrong? Or just the way it is abused at present?

And what about a case where the "class" has a legitimate injustice to be addressed and restitution made? What are the other options?

Care to elaborate?

this same thing made me dump some stock I owned in Altria and Ride Aid stores. I can't understand how someone could make and sell a product that when used regularly causes addiction and kills.

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Actually they killed members of my family BEFORE warning labels! I became addicted as a stupid kid! And yes, they target "future smokers" if you KILL 50% of your users you ALWAYS need replacements! As for class actions, I have money! I don't need theirs! I don't care if lawyers get it! Fred, you are smart guy, how you can compare fast food to a truly LEGAL DRUG like nicotine shocks me. I want to see them go down. Hard.

Drugs don't kill people. People kill people.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Daddy
Member of TRBC. My Blog
The Puritan Pub (Team Blog)
Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Not all Fred. This is a broad brush you are using. Go watch Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich. This is a legitamate case.

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N. Robert; Trinity Reformed Church RCA, Holland MI

Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

LOL

I think Proverbs 1:10-19 is applicable to your question.

10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

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Thomas Weddle
Member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church
Evansville, Indiana

For every Erin Brockovich there are 1,000 frivolous class suits. The Pacific Gas litigation could also have been handled (and may even have been, I don't have all the details at hand) by customary litigation.

I get at least 5-10 class action notices per year, from bank cards, to car rentals, etc. I don't know that the "award" is ever in excess of a couple of dollars or a coupon, but I know lawyers are getting rich.

Dale Gribbel: Drugs don't kill people. The government does.

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J. B. Atken
John Knox PCA
Layman, M.A. student at Louisiana College

I don't think the concept of class-action is always wrong, though it it often misapplied, but the way we do litigation in this country is a crying sin. That from someone who hopes to be a paralegal very soon. Pray that I'll get a decent lawyer that cares about justice, please!!

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Thomas with respect to you as a Pastor. Would you apply this to Big Tobacco? Would you call them righteous? I know stockholders who would not give them that much credit!

*rides in on his evil lawyer Hellsteed*

First of all, just what do you all think a class-action lawsuit is?

What it is, is a way for a class of people who believe they have been civily wronged to join together and bring all of their claims under one, singular suit. They all have the same injury, the same facts to their case, the same allegations, etc. It does not promote judicial economy of resources to have 2,000 seperate lawsuits against the American Tobbaco industry, ergo the suits are joined together and litigated together.

To my knowledge, you may chose not to be a part of the class action lawsuit, but you may be bound in what you can and can't use (depositions, witnesses, etc.).

They are not some way for some lawyer to profit off of other people. All lawyers profit off of other people, that's our job. We have a special skill, and we are paid for it. Plain and simple. A class action lawsuit undoubtedly consumes a vast amount of resources, and the lawyer pays for this out of his own pocket.

I repeat, a lawyer pays for this out of his own pocket.

If he wins, he is usually restricted in the fees he may collect, i.e. 33,3% of the total damages. However, keep in mind what I just repeated to you twice: he paid for the trial out of his own pocket. If he lost, he was out of the money with nothing but a judgment against him to show for it. He, his paralegals, everybody who worked on the case has to be paid as well, and, keep in mind, he and whatever other lawyers are on the case will be representing that entire class of people.

I mean, what would make it more fair here to you? Does the fact that 4 or 5 lawyers get 2 million dollars for representing 50 injured clients make you uncomfortable? Would it make you feel better if 50 individual lawyers got 20,000 dollars each, while the court had 50 seperate trials on the docket, practically throwing taxpayer money down the toilet?

I'd rather 5 lawyers get rich for doing good at their job than have the court tied up with all of that mess.

But then, it might not take up that many resources anyway, because if one claim won, then, concievably, the subsequent claims could claim offensive collateral estoppel and have all of the pertinent facts pre-determined from the get-go and get an easy judgement, but that still takes up a lot of time and offensive collateral estoppel isn't the most popular thing from what I know.

Anyway...

*rides off on his evil lawyer Hellsteed*

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Andrew DeShazo, Deacon, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"All of us stumble in many ways, but if anyone is never at fault in what he says, then he is mature, able to control his whole body."(James 3:2)