Defective Product Complaints

Greg Owen

Attorney

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Attorneys and their clients who find themselves in consumer lawsuits, scored a victory on Thursday. The state Supreme Court ruled that lawyers who file class-action suits are entitled to know the names of customers who have complained about those products, unless there is an objection to that disclosure by the customers.

Lawyers may want to contact people who have made prior complaints and/or witnesses in order to strengthen their case. The ruling "ensures that the people trying to bring the claims will be able to access the people who were hurt,'' said Jeff Westerman. In the past, attorneys were able to object to such contact by claiming that it violates the right to privacy. The court was not convinced by that argument.

As Justice Ming Chin put it "California's constitutional right to privacy is strong but not absolute, protecting only an individual's "reasonable expectation of privacy against a serious invasion.''