Access to justice for consumers: A perspective from common law countries

The paper examines techniques suggested in recent times by the “access to justice” movement for overcoming the inadequacy of traditional means of consumer protection, which are very dependent upon the individual consumer's initiative and financial resources. The jurisdictions discussed are the United States, Britain, Australia, and Canada. The author first examinesclass actions. They have found recognition only in the United States, and even there, courts have begun to follow a more restrictive line. There is little reason to believe that the introduction of the institute into other jurisdictions — as recommended in Australia — will have great impact upon the consumer's position.Small claims courts have become popular, both in the United States and the other countries discussed, due to the cumbersome and expensive procedures in ordinary courts. The main deficiency of small claims courts lies in the fact that they may be used by enterprises for cheap debt collection. The procedure of awarding monetarycompensation to consumers who have experienced loss as a result of an offence — instituted by law reform in certain places — has a very limited scope. Finally, the author discussesactions by consumer organizations and agencies. They are not very frequent in common law countries, and if consumer organizations do no get public funding, such a system will hardly turn out to be adequate. In his conclusion, the author is rather skeptical of the role of the courts in the improvement of consumer protection: They have too little input from consumer quarters and they are limited to a case-by-case reasoning. Courts have only a supplementary role to play in consumer protection.