The Pentagram against liberty stikes/rules again...

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/...ed-by-high-court-ruling-on-class-action-suits

soon when our freedoms are finally wiped out people who are in apparently in a coma or lost in another delusion where they think illegal immigrants, tax payer funded abortions, welfare queens, and pensions are the cause for their ills will finally realize that why those may erode their wealth, the cell they've been placed in is far worst to their freedom of everything.

From your source:

Tort reform advocate Ted Frank, writing before the Supreme Court decision was issued, argued that class-action lawyers would benefit most from a decision against AT&T.

“In every single one of my cases, my clients would have been better off … with the AT&T Mobility arbitration provision than with what class-action attorneys negotiated for them,” he wrote. “The media is uniformly describing this case as one of consumers vs. businesses, when it's really one of consumers vs. lawyers trying to protect their monopoly on dispute resolution procedures.”

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But why worry about the realities of our legal system when there's some blind corporate hate to spew, eh?

More importantly....

"Through this ruling, the court’s ultra-conservative majority continues its relentless effort to shift power to corporate interests while hobbling the ability of everyday Americans to band together within the legal system to fight back against corporate misbehavior," said Aron, the Alliance for Justice president. "After today’s ruling, corporations will now be able to decide on their own which civil rights and consumer protections they want to obey, knowing that there will be no effective means available to their victims to find redress."

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I am not entirely happy with Obama, but keeping him around for another term will hopefully get some new blood into the SCotUS to rebalance opinions in favor of individuals over corporations.

Yeah, I've been a part of several class action lawsuits where while the attorney's got paid big bucks, the defendants got absolutely nothing or something very close. Not that my damages were ever too much individually, but that's not the point.

A few off the top of my head:
1) Amway - Got sucked in when I was in college. Had never heard of multi-level marketing, my parents (who had) didn't warn me even when I asked them about it, and the guy selling me was really slick. It cost something like $150 or $300 to join in, which I paid.

Well someone sued a few years later, I got notice, and joined in. Ended up a pretty big settlement, something like $14MM (It wasn't a suit against Amway, but a specific person up the food chain from me that they got on fraud). Attorney's got a bunch of money out of it. The defendants got coupons to buy Amway products at a discount.

2. Suit against MBNA over foreign transaction fees. I had traveled pretty good during the period in question. Paid a LOT in those fees. Again, multi-million dollar settlement. I got $7.56.

3. Remember when the CD labels all got busted for price fixing? We all got hosed hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Best we got to hope for out of that lawsuit was $20 IF under a certain number of people signed up. Well over that amount did, we all got nothing (the defendants part went to a charity instead IIRC), but the attorney's that won still took their 50% of the award plus expenses (which probably came to more than 80% of the total).

Thrasher said:

I am not entirely happy with Obama, but keeping him around for another term will hopefully get some new blood into the SCotUS to rebalance opinions in favor of individuals over corporations.

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If a Republican does beat Obama, he's likely to be far less corporate friendly than Bush was, so either way, the SCOTUS should end up less corporate friendly.

I would hope so, but as far as I can tell, most of the talk I hear out of Republicans in Congress is to continue to support corporate tax breaks, subsidies, and more deregulation. That certainly sounds more like corporate favoritism to me.

Since 'Citizens United' the system is now officially rigged (if it wasn't already before). I'm not that thrilled with O'bama either, but look at the alternatives. Most are complete 'Whack Jobs' (Birthers, Palin, Bachman - I could go on). If anything I wish O'bama was further to the left. If the Repubs win in 2012 it is truly the end for this country. I've been around probably a lot more years than most people here and I've seen Presidents and the Sup. Court come and go. But, this will be (again, if we're not there already) a complete takeover by big business. My God, we don't even have the right to know *who* is backing the Repubs now with untold millions of dollars. Absolutely no accountability. Really, do the 'true conservatives' (remember those) out there think that this is right? Or fair? They preach religious 'family values' while sleeping around and buggering young male pages (more than the Dems do, that's for sure).
Which political party cares more for the poor and downtrodden? I'm not that much of a religious man, but from what I've read in the Bible, Repubs should be ashamed of what they're trying to pull off. What's coming is people sleeping (and dying) in the streets again like the 1930s. A few very rich pulling the strings, and masses of very poor, with the middle class squeezed in the middle. No Social Security, no Medicare, no unemployment compensation, screw the schools, screw the VA, etc. These are the plans the Repubs have in store for us. Just check the Ryan plan. Bush spent huge amounts, cut taxes for the very rich and sent us into an unprecedented economic spiral. I don't know if there is anything that can stop this. O'bama at least stopped us from another Great Depression (believe me, it was coming), and he started to turn the economy around, but even that was not good enough for the greatly mis/uninformed American public. We want everything, right *now*. 'We're number one! We're number one! I shake my head at the stupidity and ignorance (thank you, Fox News). Truly, we are on the brink. If you think I'm being an alarmist, just read some history.

this county wasn't founded by corporations but individuals
the soldiers who die are individuals not the corporations that profit from the war
why the fuck are we starting a third war in libya (because we hate gadhafi--who may not be a great guy but is hardly bad for his county and has zero impact on us)
the only thing this county is in the business of anymore is war
war never brings democracy and
its always those who don't fight in wars, don't have many family members or friends in them who seem to champion them.

actually while obama may be a "social" liberal he is still a wall street/corporate stooge which i why i can guarantee there will be no real theat to his re-election as long as he keeps playing ball and comprimising by implementing ineffectual financial policies.

and dte no corporations fought in the civil war either but when this country gets pushed towards another one you can go ahead and lay your life on the line for one...

my spew is far from blind though it is indeed hateful. there's not a whole lot of advertising for thinking for yourself or your families future but it was never really about blindness anyhow...more a deafening from sea to shining see.

blatantninja that's some nice examples. that's sadly how it goes that lawyers do indeed soak up all the money from the endless legal battles. but when the outcome is in the favour of the consumer/worker then i'd say that the non-monetary value of that has quite a bit of worth. i don't need video games, books or television to tell me that life is indeed an endless struggle not only with ourselves but against our own and each others actions that conspire to strip others of their liberties to live without fear and suffering.

Can somebody please summarize the article for me ? In a few words or sentences ?

What is meant with "class-action suits" ? What does this term mean ?

Well, IMHO there is a huge problem with the legal system especially in the U.S. the lawyers and so on costs extreme amounts of money, and the more you pay the better you get. This is good for huge co-operations but it can also hurt small innovative businesses….. a huge company can sue them for anything…. and even if they are not guilty they'll not be able to afford the legal process.

When finally the long process is over…. the only winners are the lawyers and big co-operations.. no matter if they win or lose it is still small money for them, and they managed to hurt the other part enough to make it worthwhile.

If it is cheated citizens on the other end… they'll probably end up getting a fine from the huge company which is less than what they earned from acting against the law.

The same goes for environmental law. Just look at BP they are already considering deep sea drilling again.....

Ah, I see. Yes, that's a huge problem, of course. Lawyers might perhaps even want to get into the legislative process and twist the actual laws (or start new ones) so that lawyers will eventually the winners of anythin, regardless what case ?

Because where's holes in a system, they (the holes) will of course be exploited … And of course groups will try to squeeze the most possible for them out from a state … So, exploitation becomes a general scheme within companies ?

Exploitation as an actual Business Philosophy ?


We have a different yet similar problem here : The so-called "Abmahn-Industrie".
Surprisingly, Wikipedia Germany has NO article on it, although it usually comments (by creating articles) on almost ANY current movement … Here is all I have : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abmahnung

An "Abmahnung" is really kind of a "cease & desist letter".

And from there :

In practice, a lawyer may do this without having been hired by a client who has been wronged, in essence searching for violators of covered laws and demanding payment from them for having found them. This abuse of the law has in recent years led to the so-called Abmahnwelle (-wave), as lawyers and copyright holders are trawling the internet searching for even minor and usually unintended violations of e.g. copyright law, with some lawfirms sending thousands of letter per year demanding payment.

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This is just a business for many lawyers, nowadays, and it spreads like a Pest.
But no-one really wants to stop it because - in the end, there re lawyers in the government, in the legislative process, and they seemingly sdon't want to "hurt" other lawyers out there …

It's almost like a sort of Mafia : "Lawyers Unite ! Rule The World !" - And all follow and help out each other and protect each other from attempts to stop this exploitation of laws … And THIS is where Democracy ROTS FROM THE INSIDE !!!