Dell sued for "bait and switch" and false promises

right, and that is why i suggested (above) that the reform should be on how
much in fees the lawyers are allowed to collect and not how much a
complainant is allowed to receive. it is disgusting how little is paid out
to the complainant. fees can still be attractive to the lawyers at one
quarter of what they currently collect in such matters. fees as a ratio to
the settlement amount can be legislated. limiting the right to sue or
limiting the possible reward to the complainant goes against the fundamental
principal of a free market economy.

"Jerry Park" wrote in message
.. .
Timothy Daniels wrote:

"Jerry Park" wrote:

Timothy Daniels wrote:

"Nascar12" wrote:

There has to be at least a little threat of "let the company beware"
to
maintain a balance otherwise it'll be open season on consumers.




I agree.

*TimDaniels*


The only people who profit from class actions are the lawyers.

Since companies are going to be sued in class action, regardless of the
merits of the case, the threat of a class action is not a detriment.

If you don't believe that, witness the Vioxx lawsuits. The company
making Vioxx determined it might increase mortality and pulled it from
the market. Because of that, it is being sued. The companies making
similar drugs (Celebrex and Bextra) did not pull their product from the
market. They are not being sued. Doing the right thing provides no
protection from class action.

All class actions do is enrich lawyers and raise costs to everyone. The
cost of class actions is factored into the cost of everything you buy.



Perhaps it is factored into every drug that you buy, but there is
still *some* incentive to keep the cost of drugs down so that doctors
don't prescribe alternative drugs. On the other hand, how else would
consumers be protected from being cheated by large corporations
if there could be no class action suits? Do *you* have the resources
to sue, say, Microsoft? GE? Toyota? Merril Lynch? Dell?

*TimDaniels*

No, I don't have the resources to sue someone. If I received a bad product
from one of the above listed companies, and the company did not deal
appropriately with me, I'd just lose the cost of the product.

If, however, someone filed a class action suit against the company that
sold me a bad product, I'd still lose the cost of the product and I would
pay more for the replacement product. You don't really think anyone BUT
lawyers receive anything of real value from class action suits?

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:12:59 -0600, Jerry Park
wrote:

Timothy Daniels wrote:

"Nascar12" wrote:

There has to be at least a little threat of "let the company beware" to
maintain a balance otherwise it'll be open season on consumers.



I agree.

*TimDaniels*

The only people who profit from class actions are the lawyers.

Depends how you look at it. Perhaps the payout from the suite is low,
however, the threat of future lawsuits can keep companies honest; so
in this sense the public can profit from the action. I think you would
agree that it is not enough to trust big business to do the right
thing, they are in business to make money and this means push the
legal envelope. The Justice Department doesn't have the time to keep
every company in line, so we rely on the trial lawyers.

Code4u wrote:

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:12:59 -0600, Jerry Park
wrote:



Timothy Daniels wrote:



"Nascar12" wrote:



There has to be at least a little threat of "let the company beware" to
maintain a balance otherwise it'll be open season on consumers.



I agree.

*TimDaniels*


The only people who profit from class actions are the lawyers.



Depends how you look at it. Perhaps the payout from the suite is low,
however, the threat of future lawsuits can keep companies honest; so
in this sense the public can profit from the action. I think you would
agree that it is not enough to trust big business to do the right
thing, they are in business to make money and this means push the
legal envelope. The Justice Department doesn't have the time to keep
every company in line, so we rely on the trial lawyers.


I agree that there are 'bad' companies. But most successful companies
want to provide a good product at a good price. They do that because it
is good for business.

A company that has to be 'kept in line' with the threat of a lawsuit,
won't be 'kept in line'. They will just see the lawsuit as the cost of
doing business.

Where the 'keep them in line' attitude is does have an effect is on good
companies who do want to do a good job at a reasonable cost. The lawsuit
mentality forces them to charge more for their product than they
otherwise would, just to pay for frivolous lawsuits.

It hardly matters (in terms of cost) if a company wins or loses such a
lawsuit. The cost of winning is extremely high. And everyone doing
business with that company pays the increased cost of their product.

Class action lawsuits do no good to the complaintants and harm everyone
else.

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:12:59 -0600, Jerry Park
wrote:

The only people who profit from class actions are the lawyers.

Since companies are going to be sued in class action, regardless of the
merits of the case, the threat of a class action is not a detriment.

Oh, I think the threat of big lawsuits keeps a lot of companies honest
that wouldn't be otherwise. So, indirectly, we all do benefit.

Some awards may have gotten out of hand, though. But some are
deserved, like the girl in North Carolina who got a transplant of the
wrong blood type. I mean, I'd double-check and triple-check something
like that, wouldn't you?
--
Top 10 Conservative Idiots:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/

"Jerry Park" wrote:
Where the 'keep them in line' attitude is does have
an effect is on good companies who do want to do
a good job at a reasonable cost. The lawsuit
mentality forces them to charge more for their product
than they otherwise would, just to pay for frivolous lawsuits.


And who is to decide for us which lawsuits are "frivolous"
and which are "non-frivolous"? You base your argument on
the implied assumption that all class action law suits are
"frivolous" and not with the effect of curbing unfair corporate
practices.

*TimDaniels*

Paul Knudsen wrote:

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:12:59 -0600, Jerry Park
wrote:



The only people who profit from class actions are the lawyers.

Since companies are going to be sued in class action, regardless of the
merits of the case, the threat of a class action is not a detriment.



Oh, I think the threat of big lawsuits keeps a lot of companies honest
that wouldn't be otherwise. So, indirectly, we all do benefit.

Some awards may have gotten out of hand, though. But some are
deserved, like the girl in North Carolina who got a transplant of the
wrong blood type. I mean, I'd double-check and triple-check something
like that, wouldn't you?


Certainly. But then, that wasn't a class action ...

Timothy Daniels wrote:

"Jerry Park" wrote:

Where the 'keep them in line' attitude is does have
an effect is on good companies who do want to do
a good job at a reasonable cost. The lawsuit mentality forces them to
charge more for their product
than they otherwise would, just to pay for frivolous lawsuits.



And who is to decide for us which lawsuits are "frivolous"
and which are "non-frivolous"? You base your argument on
the implied assumption that all class action law suits are
"frivolous" and not with the effect of curbing unfair corporate
practices.

*TimDaniels*

No. I know many do have merit. My point is that no one benefits from
class action law suits except the lawyers. This is the case when the
lawsuit is frivolous and when it has merit. It is still the case when
the complaintant wins and when the complaintant loses.

To be fair, there is some benefit when a bad company is forced out of
business with a class action lawsuit. Unfortunately, that small benefit
is well offset by the good companies which are forced out of business by
class action.

"Jerry Park" wrote in message
. ..
Paul Knudsen wrote:


Some awards may have gotten out of hand, though. But some are
deserved, like the girl in North Carolina who got a transplant of the
wrong blood type. I mean, I'd double-check and triple-check something
like that, wouldn't you?

Certainly. But then, that wasn't a class action ...

Some of it is daft. Like the girl who was so pleased at her pay raise that
she hopped, skipped and jumped back to her desk. She snapped her Achilles
Tendon on the way, so sued her employers for not protecting her properly.
She won!

Gosh! Let's turn this thread into a debate about the Bush administration's tort
reform proposal, which would reduce the number of class action lawsuits. Based
on 4 years and 2 months in office, one must conclude that ANY initiative by the
Bush administration would benefit the oligarchs who bought and paid for this
presidency, and works to the detriment of the large and growing underclass in
the United States... Ben Myers

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 11:22:57 -0000, "GB" wrote:


"Jerry Park" wrote in message
...
Paul Knudsen wrote:


Some awards may have gotten out of hand, though. But some are
deserved, like the girl in North Carolina who got a transplant of the
wrong blood type. I mean, I'd double-check and triple-check something
like that, wouldn't you?

Certainly. But then, that wasn't a class action ...

Some of it is daft. Like the girl who was so pleased at her pay raise that
she hopped, skipped and jumped back to her desk. She snapped her Achilles
Tendon on the way, so sued her employers for not protecting her properly.
She won!

And, of course, the people voted based on all the facts presented objectively to
the public by the Bush regime. Getting back on topic, talk about your bait and
switch! ... Ben Myers

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 14:15:57 GMT, Leythos wrote:

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:20:03 +0000, Ben Myers wrote:

one must conclude that ANY initiative by the
Bush administration would benefit the oligarchs who bought and paid for this
presidency, and works to the detriment of the large and growing underclass in
the United States... Ben Myers

Got news for you - the people voted and BUSH WON - now face that fact or
stop whining.

--

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