Everything on this page is Simon's personal politics, not law. My politics are decentralist Green.
Class proceedings are essentially a variation from the typical 'one-versus-one party' civil litigation (ie. lawsuit) model that allows for 'many-versus-one party' proceedings - typically many consumer plaintiffs against one large international corporation.
Despite their flaws (one of which is the tolerance of increased - albeit court-approved - lawyer contingency fees) class proceedings are one of the few measures that exist today (along with anti-competition laws) that allows some fight-back against the reality of extreme international corporate-control of business in the modern day western world.
We should all hope for increased activity in (and the increased legal accessibility of) class proceedings as a reactive means of contesting the effects of the gross inequality of bargaining power that we presently live under. I say reactive since class proceedings (again, along with anti-competition laws) are inadequate without more progressive measures such as reduced/eliminated taxation for small and local businesses and co-ops, controls over real property concentration (particularly against non-local absentee owners) - and more imaginative solutions.
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