by Deepak Gupta
The use and abuse of the consumer class action device has become a recurrent source of controversy in the United States (and, as other countries begin to consider the American-style class action, a topic of global interest). To be sure, much of the debate is fueled by hot air and a thinly disguised deregulatory agenda. But there are also some very real problems out there. The biggest by far is the sellout settlement, in which a greedy lawyer who's supposed to be representing consumers places his own desire for hefty fees above his clients' interests and enters into a collusive and unfair settlement that benefits everyone but the consumers themselves. Left unchecked, this problem undermines public confidence in what is otherwise a powerful tool for justice and gives critics an excuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
With that insight in mind, in the mid-1990's, the 
National Association of Consumer Advocates decided to respond by developing its Guidelines for Litigating and Settling Consumer Class Actions, which were issued, after extensive internal deliberation and public comment, in 1997. The Guidelines were published in the Federal Rules Decisions, along with a foreword by co-blogger Brian Wolfman, who described them at the time as "intelligent, balanced, and, most importantly, supportive of the interests of absent class members--the very interests that class action critics allege have been abandoned by class action lawyers." 176 F.R.D. 370, 371. Although they certainly haven't been a panacea, the Guidelines have been successful: They have set standards that answer some very thorny ethical, legal, and practical questions. They have also been cited in published decisions, embraced by the courts, and reflected in the recent amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.
