Business Groups, Trial Lawyers Battle Over Class Action Reform

Employing a tactic they used successfully last year, California’s trial lawyers have launched three ballot initiatives to derail an anti-class action measure sponsored by big business.

Provisions in the initiatives, sponsored by the Consumer Attorneys of California, would:

• strip the pay of corporate executives convicted of fraud and distribute the money to California’s Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund (.pdf);
• require a majority of shareholders to approve the compensation packages of a company’s board of directors and top 10 executives;
• disclose the aggregate salary ranges, retirement offerings and health care plans provided to a publicly held company’s workers;
• discourage coupon settlements that typically offer class action plaintiffs a discount on defendant companies’ goods or services; and
• direct 25 percent of class action damages to the state for “consumer protection, shareholder and pension protection, fire and police protection and protection from insurance companies … .”