This month’s look at "classic" class action scholarship focuses on the article Nonpecuniary Class Action Settlements by Geoffrey Miller and Lori Singer. Like the name suggests, nonpecuniary settlements are settlements that don’t require cash payments to the absent class members. According to Miller and Singer, they include:

  • Coupon settlements.
  • Monitoring settlements, "where the defendant endows

If I may draw on my (necessarily narrow) experience as a class-action litigator, a rising number of class actions are asserting nationwide contract claims, and specifically claims for the breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing. I could speculate on the reason for that (new class-action theories come into vogue; there has

Geoffrey Miller is one of the few law professors out there who consistently investigates real empirical questions about class actions. He’s published on the role of objectors in class-action settlements, the use of non-pecuniary relief, and even the effect of judicial review on settlement rates. So when Miller comes out with a policy proposal–as he