I don’t usually link to registration-required sites, but this article is worth it (and the registration is not too intrusive). Charles Burck writes about the reaction to the Netflix class-action settlement, and makes this observation which I would love to be true but strikes me as overly optimistic:
Could this be the Boston Tea Party of the class-action game—a relatively small-potatoes event that leads to epochal change? An Internet-driven consumer uprising against a pending class-action settlement by Netflix, the online movie-rental outfit, may torpedo this particular deal. But even if it doesn’t, the uproar reveals a growing universe of people who are as mad as hell about suits where lawyers pocket millions while each injured party gets a coupon worth $6, maybe.
(Charles Burck, “Bloggers Challenge a Class-Action Settlement”, Corporate Board Member Magazine, March/April 2006). One might hope. The opponents of the settlement cite two problems with the settlement: 1) Only the lawyers got cash, and 2) the coupons Netflix is sending to customers are really a low-cost marketing program for them, like locking you into a magazine subscription with a free first month, and doesn’t really punish Netflix or compensate customers at all. So, either there was no harm, and the suit was a big frivolous mess, or there was harm to customers, in which case the settlement utterly failed to redress it.
Anyway, just in case you are deterred by the registration requirement, I will share this not-to-be-missed quote:
A surprising number of bloggers on both sides of the customer-satisfaction aisle were upset by the whole idea of the settlement. “I too am quite tired of getting the countless class-action lawsuits that seem to infiltrate my mailbox, where someone felt as though their hamburger wasn’t quite two ounces, their car was 1 hp less than advertised, or they (in this case) can only see 10 movies a month,” said Dave Guo of Pittsburgh on MSNBC’s Red Tape Chronicles, a blog. “The pathetic joke to it all is, the only one that gains is the attorney in every case.”
Also weighing in on this point was “Will,” who posted on Geektronica.com. “I really don’t care whether the lawsuit was justified,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s about false advertising or a petulant subscriber. I don’t care if this guy should have been subscribing at a higher level. I don’t care if anyone here personally saw the effects of throttling or not. What I care about is a $2.5 million payout to a bunch of lawyers. If Netflix did wrong by its customers, why is it that the lawyers are getting the biggest payoff?” Even some attorneys agreed with the point. “We lawyers get a lot of undeserved abuse about a lot of things,” said Tom Moss, posting on Red Tape Chronicles. (Perhaps wisely, he didn’t give a hometown.) “But when it comes to class-action lawsuits and coupon settlements, lawyers deserve every rotten thing that can be said about them.”
Apparently, there is a website to protest the settlement which announces a hearing set for tomorrow (Feb 22). Ted and Walter have been all over this on Nov 3, Jan 11, Jan 21
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Bloggers Fight Lawsuit Abuse
Overlawyered.com writes daily about lawsuit abuse like the infamous McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit. Today they are reporting that bloggers have stepped up to the plate to …
The Daily Memo – 2/21/06
Automakers are using the law to get ahead. No way! (The Legal Reader) It appears that the states are not taking kindly to the Supreme Court’s eminent domain laws. (Althouse) The restructured Supreme Court grants cert on its first major…
class actions exist to create another regulatory authority to oversee commerce, i.e. Lawyers act as gatekeepers of commerce by enforcing consumer protection laws, securities laws, etc. Class actions do not exist to provide redress to injured parties. That may not seem “fair”, it is the way things work.
Might I suggest then that, since Plaintifflawyer is litigating with goals similar to criminal proceedings, he should get to work under the same constraints as the state’s attorney does:
1) Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required.
2) He has to pay for the defense.
“class actions exist to create another regulatory authority to oversee commerce, i.e. Lawyers act as gatekeepers of commerce by enforcing consumer protection laws, securities laws, etc.”
If that’s true, then they should all be in jail for crimially depriving people of their rights through extra-Contritutional means.
In other words, doing what you say class-actions ar efor is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, as those involved have been neither elected nor appointed by someone elected, etc. They are self-selected.
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