On November 25, 1998, WLF filed a brief in the California Supreme Court, urging the court to hold that a lawsuit should not be certified as a class action unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that the benefits to all members of the proposed plaintiff class outweigh the considerable costs (to the parties and the courts) of administering a class action. WLF argued that in cases, such as this one, in which class members have no more than a few dollars at stake, the only people that can hope to benefit from class certification are the plaintiffs’ lawyers. WLF argued that once a trial court certifies a case as a class action, defendants are under intense pressure to settle, because the risk of facing an all-or-nothing verdict presents too high a risk, even when the probability of an adverse judgment is low.
