Things are looking up for US class-action lawyers

US class action lawyers will rest a little easier after argument in the Supreme Court in the case of AT&T v Conception on Tuesday. The judgment will not be handed down until next year, but there were indications that the justices were not inclined to allow companies to use fine print to block class actions. Several justices suggested the better course of action might be to defer to state courts on the issue. The background to this case is that an AT&T unit tried to prohibit class actions via arbitration clauses in contracts with mobile-phone customers. Courts in California ruled the provision unenforceable, and AT&T appealed to the Supreme Court.

Things are looking up for US class-action lawyers blogs.wsj.com Wed, Nov 10, 2010