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Other countries use an actual If we are going to talk about other countries—-they don’t have class actions or gigantic punitive damages awards. Lawsuits are by
by bradleyjg 4y ago
Other countries use an actual
If we are going to talk about other countries—-they don’t have class actions or gigantic punitive damages awards. Lawsuits are by and large intended to compensate people for their losses rather than be a substitute regulatory regime as in the US. Consumer arbitration, in practice if not theory, is much closer to that.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoSmall claims in the US is also focused on compensating victims, no? So if the courts are so flawed why create an entire parallel system, funded by the richer parties? It reeks of selling justice. And the 'voluntary' opt out requires careful reading of lifetimes worth of text, postage, and repeating a bespoke process for every company one ever interacts with. It all sounds to me like there is a bug in the kernel scheduler (judiciary) so dominant programs (say browsers) demand every app that interacts with them use their choice of user-space scheduler which the dominant party happens to have bankrolled. And all this instead of fixing the kernel.
- bradleyjg 4y agoWelcome to America. Nothing is elegantly designed but it somehow mostly works pretty well and occasionally fails spectacularly.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoAmerica cannot stand still and say "good enough". The US was founded by people unsatisfied with the status quo.
- bradleyjg 4y agoBy all means, put in real regulators that actually rein in bad actors and eliminate regulation-by-lawsuits. You have my full support.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> why create an entire parallel system Small claims are for small claims. No lawyers, no juries, no opinions; just a decision. Courts are great for large claims. Lawyers, juries and precedent-setting opinions. In between are medium-sized claims where you want a lawyer but not a jury or opinion. (There are too many cases and they’re not individually worth it. If they’re worth it in aggregated, they should be certified as a class, something I don’t think one should be allowed to waive one’s right to.) Arbitration emerged as a solution to claims too big and complex for small claims, but not worth litigating in court.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoExcept arbitration appears to knee cap class actions. And tilts the scales in favor of companies footing the bill. Perhaps we need medium claims court that can be independent, instead of a private system bought and paid for by the wealthier party.