NEW YORK (Reuters) - In 2001, attorney Merrida Coxwell of Jackson, Mississippi, was involved in a class-action suit against a financial company accused of overcharging customers by $30 to $40 apiece.
Under a new federal law that restricts such suits, signed on Friday by President Bush, Coxwell says he would avoid such a case.
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That means plaintiffs' lawyers would have to spend time and money traveling to distant U.S. district courts. They might also be under pressure to produce more sophisticated, better-researched material in front of a higher court.
The law could accelerate the consolidation of law firms that specialize in bringing class-action suits, lawyers said. Some firms -- such as Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman with 120 lawyers, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins with 140 and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein with 65 -- employ a large support staffs to fight the long battles involved.
"It will have a deterrent effect on the small law firms," said Coxwell, who heads Coxwell & Associates, a five-lawyer firm. "In a way, it may cause consolidation of lawyers into bigger national law firms."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7679833
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