Michael Daly Comments on New Jersey Supreme Court Ruling Requiring Actual Harm in TCCWNA Cases

Philadelphia partner Michael Daly was quoted in a Law360 article entitled “Consumer Harm Ruling May Hobble NJ Contract Class Actions.” The article analyzes the implications of a recent New Jersey Supreme Court decision that confirmed that plaintiffs do not have statutory standing to seek civil penalties under the Truth-in-Consumer Contract Warranty and Notice Act unless they have suffered an actual harm.

The statute had spawned a cottage industry of scouring the internet for arguably noncompliant documents and littering New Jersey with “demand letters” that threatened class actions in the absence of swift settlements—an archetype of the sort of lawyer-driven, no-injury litigation that does nothing for consumers other than drive up the costs of goods and services. Mike explained that the decision should not only make it easier to obtain the dismissal of pending cases, but also make it harder to obtain class certification in future cases, many of which “will allege harms that are not only intangible but also highly idiosyncratic.”

Read “Consumer Harm Ruling May Hobble NJ Contract Class Actions.”