Remarks to the Institute for Law and Economic Policy

The test for allowing a class action under former Equity Rule 38 was modestly
stated to be satisfied when the question before the court was “one of common or
general interest to many persons constituting a class so numerous as to make it
impracticable to bring them all before the court.”, It’s all that simple! While
refinement and amplification of the rule followed with the adoption and subsequent
modification of Rule 23, no one, even in 1966 when the current version of Rule 23
was adopted, fully anticipated the problems that face today’s judicial system in
applying Rule 23. Of course, I am talking about the mass tort.