Class-Action Lawsuits - The French Way

France may be able to teach the U.S. plenty about class-action lawsuits.  Last November, reported Ted Frank at Pointoflaw.com, the government of France passed a bill to create a class-action procedure - carefully.  Perhaps they learned from American class-action abuses. Currently the new Sarkozy government is ironing out the structure the suit system could have.

The French way will probably have no contingency arrangements, no elected judges, and no jury trials.  They may only be used in consumer goods linked to a standard contract.  There could be a damage cap at 2000 Euros.  Filing suits would be restricted to government-approved consumer entities. Compensation can negotiated individually after a finding of fault.

And it is the consumer group in France, reports Walter Olson this week on PointofLaw.com, which is pushing for these constraints.  That group Union Federale des Consummateurs is dead set against American type law that leads to excess.