- Proposed Costco fuel settlement: $0 for class, $10M for attorneys. [CCAF]
- Senator Specter’s latest attempt to curry favor with trial lawyers. [Ribstein; see also Corporate Counsel]
- The Frank-Gryphon paper on the game theory of medical malpractice settlements is now posted. Comments welcome. [SSRN]
- Heritage panel on tort reform in the states features Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. [Summary at Point of Law]
- Liability waivers ignored and Texas Motor Speedway on the hook for $12 million after a 12-year-old driver strikes 11-year-old in the pit area. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram; id. on pre-trial]
- Martha Raye turning over in her grave, as trial lawyers target denture cream as next mass tort. [AP/Washington Post]
Posts tagged as:
CCAF
The Sep. 21 issue of Forbes magazine, now on newsstands, has a lengthy profile by Dan Fisher of my founding of the Center for Class Action Fairness, complete with a photo of my ugly mug gracing the story.
Of interest is a new revelation in the infamous Toshiba class action:
After few consumers availed themselves of a $2 billion settlement over supposedly defective laptop computers in 2000, for example, Toshiba America handed $353 million to a Beaumont charity whose chairman was plaintiff attorney Wayne Reaud, the lawyer on the case. Six years later the charity was still sitting on $250 million and the Texas attorney general sued for breach of fiduciary duty, including paying its president, W. Frank Newton, $560,000 in 2004. Newton is the former president of the State Bar of Texas.
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Larry Ribstein and Alexandra Lahav comment favorably, as does the pseudonymous “Kat”, and Scott Greenfield semi-snarks about my new job.
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I may have a new job as what David Lat calls the “Class Action Avenger” and a new blog to go with it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be speaking about more general legal reform issues. A Heritage Foundation panel on preemption, featuring Kyle Sampson, former NHTSA and DOT general counsel Jeffrey Rosen, and myself is now viewable online. It’s only fair to note that I cribbed a lot from Michael Greve’s Bradley Lecture on federalism (video), which I can’t recommend enough.
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With a million dollars of attorneys’ fees at stake, the trial lawyers in the infamous Grand Theft Auto case appealed the lower court decertification ruling to the Second Circuit.
In response, I filed this brief today.
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Before asking a federal judge to grant preliminary approval for a class action settlement with Ameritrade over alleged privacy breaches, make sure that your “client,” the class representative, isn’t going to tell the court he opposes the settlement. In re TD Ameritrade Account Holder Litigation, Case No. C 07-2852 VRW (N.D. Cal.) ($1.87M for the attorneys, coupons for the class.).
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Those of you who remember my earlier posts about the settlement and my brief on behalf of objectors might be interested in seeing the briefs that putatively settling plaintiffs and defendants submitted in support of the settlement.
So as not to clutter Overlawyered with these posts, I have started a new weblog focusing on my class action work. You can also keep up with this work by becoming a Facebook supporter of the Center for Class Action Fairness.
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Readers may recall our discussion of the Bluetooth Headset class action settlement, which remarkably granted zero to the class while asking for substantial attorneys’ fees. I asked if anyone was interested in objecting, and the response was overwhelming. Today I’ve filed an objection on behalf of seven clients.
There were more objectors out there than I could feasibly represent. If you wanted to object, but I was unable to represent you, you can still join this objection. Follow the instructions for notifying the court and attorneys of your objection, and simply state, in addition to your name and address and phone number, that you join the objection of William J. Brennan et al., docket number 107. I won’t be your attorney, but you can have the pleasure of “voting” for the objection I wrote.
And anyone in Los Angeles July 6 who wants to watch the hearing, please join in the fun. I’ve got my plane ticket.
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