A selection of the need-to-know civil justice news for the week of Nov. 29 – Dec. 5.

 

Judges, Not Juries, Grant Most Class-Action Payouts

Darren McKinney (Opinion) | Wall Street Journal

Satisfied and loyal Toyota customer Jonathan Sourbeer rightly sees the absurdity of the tiny sum he received as a class member, in largely meritless litigation against the car maker, when it’s compared with the economy-undermining quarter-billion-dollar wealth transfer from future auto-buyers to plaintiffs lawyers in the case.

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Yada, Yada, Yada: When Judges Channel Their Inner Seinfeld

John G. Browning | Texas Bar Journal

Although the last original Seinfeld episode aired in 1998, the “show about nothing” has influenced subsequent television comedies, launched many careers, and of course made a pile of money for its creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. And as it lives on thanks to syndicated reruns, perhaps it is time to acknowledge the sitcom’s influence not just on the medium of TV or the genre of comedy but on a somewhat unexpected field—the law. Believe it or not, modern jurisprudence is replete with Seinfeld references.

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New Jersey Woman Refuses to Work Midnight Shift, Claims Discrimination

NBC Philadelphia

New Jersey’s Supreme Court will hear a lawsuit by a former police dispatcher who claims she was discriminated against because she refused to work the midnight shift.

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