While everyone would acknowledge that Washington is chock full of lawyers every day, the town’s legal I.Q. soars even higher this week while the American Law Institute is assembled at its Eighty-Third Annual Meeting on May 15th, 16th and 17th. One item on their “to do” list: consider adoption of a restatement of the principles for mass litigation – class actions included, of course.  For the first time, the ALI is evaluating proposed “Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation.” Class actions are part of the picture, which is big enough to take in other large scale litigation, including, “cases that are bundled together and settled or tried to test the value of related claims,” according to the ALI’s press statement.  Institute members are tackling general principles of aggregation as well as methods for resolving common issues and special concerns related to settlements.

 

Presenters include Samuel Issacharoff of the New York University School of Law, Robert H. Klonoff of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Richard A. Nagareda of Vanderbilt University School of Law, and Charles Silver of the University of Texas School of Law. Some very heavy hitters are featured at the meeting: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

 

ALI members can download an electronic version of the draft principles at www.ali.org, and nonmembers can arrange to purchase a copy at that website. 

 

Editors’ Note:  McGlinchey members David Willenzik, Mike Rubin and Gerard Wimberly are ALI members and both Mike and Gerard have participated in the discussion on the Restatement of Aggregate Litigation. Our congratulations to them. The current ALI draft is a Restatement of Principles (rather than a Restatement of LAW) and the current plan is to present a draft to the ALI for a vote in May 2007. Blog readers who have comments about the drafts of the Restatement may post them on this site.