Do you lie awake at night weighing whether the Class Action Fairness Act is fabulous or a failure? Do you tear at your hair because you can’t think of that perfect class action settlement?

Help is on the way. The heavily CAFA-nated crew with the ABA’s 10^th Annual National Institute on Class Actions is coming to New York and San Diego this October to help you answer the question.

First things first: load up on coffee and crumpets (what is a crumpet, anyway) at the continental breakfast. Then tackle “New Developments in Class Action Law,” presented by Professor John C. Coffee, Jr.

Who could resist a session called “CAFA: Cure-All, Flop, or Too Soon to Tell?” Professor Arthur Miller will be on hand to moderate the session in New York on October 27 and to separate brawling academics, jurists and practitioners.  Professor Alan B. Morrison will keep everyone in line on October 6 in San Diego.

There’s a segment about crafting innovative “coupon free” settlements, a session on how CAFA plays out in the courtroom, and a presentation that deconstructs the interplay between class representatives and Rule 23 issues, with insights from plaintiff and defense lawyers.

Lunch is part of the plan, a schmoozathon of moderated discussion groups on these subjects: consumer class actions, securities litigation; mass tort actions; employment and civil rights litigation, antitrust and RICO, plus an “open table.”

“Class Actions and the Law of Unintended Consequences,” takes on nitty gritty issues, like the future of conditional certification, opt-in vs. opt-out classes in FSLA litigation, and bifurcation of discovery in class action litigation.

So mark your calendars: the San Diego program is on October 6, 2006, followed by the New York program on October 27.

Can’t get away? Calling is the next best thing to being there, and you don’t even have to wear pants. Dial up the CAFA live teleconference on October 27, featuring Harvard Law School Professor Arthur Miller as moderator.