By now, Volkswagen’s admittedly uncharacteristic emissions standards fraud is common knowledge. The public wants blood. The German automotive manufacturer spent seven years violating the Clean Air Act, devaluing nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles to the point where they are the Top Ramen of the automotive world. It makes sense that those burned by what could be considered the worst automotive scandal in memory are seeking fiscal justice as hundreds of class-action lawsuits are popping up in the aftermath. Hell, even the U.S. government sued them.
But House Republicans have stood up, shouting “nein!” and will soon vote on the so-called “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act,” referred to by some as the “VW Bail Out Bill.” From the Fiscal Times:
“The bill, which will get a vote on the House floor in the first week of January, follows a series of steps by the judiciary to block the courthouse door on behalf of corporations. ‘There’s no question the Supreme Court has [been] moving in that direction to limit access to courts,’ said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy. ‘But Congress has never done something like this, trying to step in and wipe out class-actions.'”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a proponent of the bill and its leading lobbyist, say they merely want to get rid of “non-injury” class-action cases that are based on potential damages from defective consumer products and corporate actions that have not yet caused harm.
However, lawyers representing class-action litigants argue that even if the consumer has not been injured, they are deserving of compensation if a product is defective.
But the “VW Bail Out Bill” goes even further than that. From the Fiscal Times:
“… courts may not certify class-action suits unless the plaintiff ‘affirmatively demonstrates that each proposed class member suffered the same type and scope of injury as the named class representative or representatives.’
‘This is devastating because it sets up all class-actions to fail,’ says attorney Lori Andrus, who represents several Volkswagen plaintiffs. If every class member must have the same type and scope of injury, it forces extensive proofs for class certification — essentially a full-blown trial up front, where plaintiffs will have to prove that their injuries match with their fellow representatives.”
Current standards for class-action lawsuits require a certain degree of commonality among those attached to the lawsuit, but “same type and scope” give lawyers opportunity to refine that criteria even further. To use the lawsuits against Volkswagen as an example, “same type and scope” could be considered the same year and model vehicle, the same emissions standards-dodging device, and the same degree of consumer harm.
Furthermore, some attorneys claim that “same type and scope” could be used to whittle down the number of people involved in the class-action and reduce compensation to plaintiffs. Theoretically, an attorney representing Volkswagen, under “same type and scope” guidelines, could exclude a potential class representative because they drove fewer miles than other representatives in the lawsuit, or drove in harsher conditions, or with lower tire pressure.
Differentiation like that seems arbitrary, but an excluded representative cuts into the amount of money a company is forced to shell out for compensation.
House Republicans really are “pro-business,” aren’t they? Maybe it’s just me, but I think that Volkswagen is not deserving of a bail out and should hand over damages to everyone whose confidence in “Das Auto” has been shattered by a motivation of pure greed. Beyond the shattered confidence, Volkswagen should be on the hook for the vehicles that were sold with the apparatus that defrauded emissions tests. Those vehicles are now worthless and the men and women who own them have sank a lot of money into a worthless product.
Volkswagen lied to them and should be penalized for their transgressions. It’s time to actually hold a corporate “person” to account for the crimes they commit.
Image by EurovisionNim, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
