Supreme Court Weighs in: Can Consumers' Small Suits be Combined?

As children we learn that there are consequences for lying or failing to disclose all of the truth, ("as if" there is a difference between the two), and therein learn to become honorable adults. When big business lies or fails to disclose the whole truth about their services or products there need to be consequences.

Yet big businesses, many times, make billions of dollars by telling "little" lies or failing to disclose some "little" truth on matters that will cost the consumer "only" a few cents or dollars. In such cases there also needs to be consequences so these businesses know they, like the adults their executives were supposedly brought up to be, need to act honorably with their consumers.

If Class Action lawsuits are eliminated as a means of protecting consumer rights all these "little" consumers will suffer. When the efforts by business to sell their products or services cross that line from the overblown advertising "puffing" we have come to expect from salespersons, to intentional or negligent misrepresentations, Class Action lawsuits are many times the only viable remedy for those little lies or failures to disclose; each of which cause a few cents or a few dollars damages to each of us but, if unchecked, allow big businesses to make billions of dollars.

The United States Supreme Court just heard all arguments on this issue. Lets hope when the decision is issued in a few months the Justices do justice for all. - Comment by Stephen A. Jamieson