Two interesting court decisions were handed down Thursday:
Judge Blocks Class Action vs. State Farm Over Katrina Damage
A federal judge on Thursday refused to allow a class action against State Farm Insurance Cos. over the insurer’s denial of claims on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
Obviously the correct decision.
Mass contract/common law tort claims *never* are suitable for class actions. In fact, the only beneficiary of class actions in those circumstances are sleazebag-style plaintiff’s attorneys, who then use the specter of class-wide judgments to extort settlement monies – keeping, of course, big piles for themselves but obtaining quite little for class members.
Judge Blocks 1998 Online Porn Law
Software filters work much better than a 1998 federal law designed to keep pornography away from children on the Internet, a federal judge ruled Thursday in striking down the measure on free-speech grounds.
Another correct decision. That law was far too broad and paternalistic to boot.
