Released: August 28, 2007

California anti-class-action initiative withdrawn

Source: John Howard, Capitol Weekly

A ballot initiative to limit class-action lawsuits was abruptly withdrawn from the state Attorney General’s office today after the backers, a coalition of businesses and local governments, said the timing of the June 2008 election and the state’s political climate made passage of the proposal uncertain at best.

“It does not appear that June is a good time to move forward on this,” said John Sullivan, president of the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), which contends that class-action suits, especially frivolous suits, enrich attorneys and siphon money from the legal system rather than provide help to wronged victims. Sullivan said he an Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce wrote state Attorney General Jerry Brown, to withdraw the initiative. Sullivan and Zaremberg submitted the initiative to Brown’s office last month for an official title and summary, the first step in getting an initiative ready for the statewide ballot.

“For us, there was the possibility that what we though would be a quiet election could be an explosive one,” Sullivan added. Other potential ballot issues in June 2008 include Republican plan to change the electoral vote to proportional, rather than winner take all; a rival measure to protect winner-take all; a defense-of-marriage initiative, a prisoner-rights act and other issues.

The Consumer Attorneys of California has opposed CJAC’s ballot proposal. The group believes the initiative was an attempt by big business to limit the legal rights of the public and that it would affect labor rights and consumer protections.

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