Plaintiff lawyers who have built a lucrative business over the past few decades suing companies over minor legal breaches that arguably harmed no one may have a tougher time bringing cases following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo v. Robins, requiring plaintiffs to plead a “concrete” injury to proceed in federal court.
The decision wasn’t a complete win for corporate defendants as the court left plenty of room for creative lawyers to craft complaints that allege their clients suffered an injury, no matter how small, from miscues like data breaches or incorrectly worded mortgage documents. But by stating clearly that some injury is required under Article III of the Constitution, the court may have ended the long-profitable business of suing companies over nothing more than statutory damages provided under laws like the anti-robocalling Telephone Consumer Protection Act...
“It’s good in that we have an announcement from the majority of the court that just the fact you have a statutory violation is not enough,” said Mary-Christine Sungaila, a partner with Haynes and Boone in California. “The challenge is the majority didn’t tell us exactly what they meant."Excerpted from Forbes. To read the full article, please click here.