Plaintiffs’ class action attorneys tend to follow trends. They are a savvy breed of attorney, at once creative and lazy (or efficient, depending on one’s perspective). One attorney discovers a statute, claim, or industry, and if he or she has some success, the others pile on. For example, Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991, but TCPA litigation didn’t really take off until about 2010. In the past five years, it has become a juggernaut.

At about the same time the TCPA cases began to grow, the plaintiffs’ bar began filing suits against food manufacturers based on claims that their products were “all natural” or “organic” as well as other claims made on labels and in marketing material. The number of food-labeling lawsuits has steadily grown over the years and has proven to be a reliable source of income for some attorneys. Similarly, suits against the manufacturers of other types of products that make geographic origin claims have also grown significantly in recent years. Most notorious are California’s “Made in the USA” regulations, which have led to numerous class-action cases and settlements.

Originally published in the Legal Backgrounder, Vol. 30 No. 12 on May 22, 2015.