caa a22 4500 445829702 CHVBK 20180317145310.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20111001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10657-011-9252-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10657-011-9252-9 Ulen Thomas University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA aut An introduction to the law and economics of class action litigation [Elektronische Daten] [Thomas Ulen] The consolidation of similar claims for compensation into a single large class of plaintiffs is referred to as "class action litigation.” This practice can have both social costs and social benefits. For an example of the social benefits of consolidating separate claims, if the facts giving rise to the claims are substantially similar, then there may be significant savings in litigation and court administrative costs from presenting those facts once rather a multitude of times. There may, however, be significant social costs to creating a class of litigants and consolidating their claims. For example, this practice may empower those with frivolous negative expected-value claims to wring an unwarranted settlement from the defendant or defendants. The article surveys other sources of social cost and benefit from class-action litigation, reviews the empirical literature on these actions, and examines recent U.S. policy debates about reforming class-action litigation. The article concludes that class-action litigation can have substantial net social benefits but only if courts assiduously oversee the class certification process so as to identify and forestall the social-cost-generating aspects of class-action litigation. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 Litigation nationallicence Class action lawsuit nationallicence Social costs nationallicence Positive- and negative-expected value claims nationallicence European Journal of Law and Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 32/2(2011-10-01), 185-203 0929-1261 32:2<185 2011 32 10657 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-011-9252-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-011-9252-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Ulen Thomas University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- European Journal of Law and Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 32/2(2011-10-01), 185-203 0929-1261 32:2<185 2011 32 10657 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer