Read the following WSJ articles:

• Supreme Court Sends Spokeo Case Back to Lower Court (May 16, 2016)
• Spokeo Case Stirs Supreme Court (Nov. 2, 2015)
• Court May Decide Future of Class-Action Cases (Sept. 30, 2015)

Plaintiff Thomas Robins sued Spokeo in 2010, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a trial judge in 2011. He appealed, and a federal appeals court allowed his class-action lawsuit to proceed last year. Spokeo appealed and the Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court, saying it used the wrong legal analysis when it allowed the lawsuit to go forward.

We discussed the four elements of a negligent act in the liability risk lecture, namely, legal duty, breach of duty, harm (injury), and proximate cause between breach of duty and harm. In this particular case, much is debated about whether the plaintiff had suffered actual harm or injury.

Discuss the following questions:

1. What are the arguments in favor of the opinion that the plaintiff has suffered injuries?
2. What are the arguments against the opinion that he has suffered concrete injuries?
3. Why are business groups and tech companies including eBay Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. supporting Spokeo?
4. Why are consumer groups supporting the plaintiff?
5. What is your take on this matter? Should this class-action lawsuit be allowed to proceed? Why?
6. Lets suppose the case will proceed. How would you quantity (put a dollar amount on) the possible special damages, general damages, and punitive damages the plaintiff may have suffered?