Overlawyered » class action settlements

Nutella maker settles class actions, cont’d

Walter Olson — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:56:44 +0000

As reported in January, the maker of the tasty chocolate-and-hazelnut spread has been paying millions to settle class actions filed on behalf of consumers purportedly outraged to find it is not a health food. Among the new coverage: David Paulin, American Thinker; Rebecca Stropoli, The Exchange/Yahoo.

Tags: class action settlements, obesity

Nutella maker settles class actions, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:05:17 +0000

“MPAA: you can infringe copyright just by embedding a video” [Timothy Lee, Ars Technica]
NYC: fee for court-appointed fire department race-bias monitor is rather steep [Reuters]
Larry Schonbron on VW class action [Washington Times] Watch out, world: “U.S. class action lawyers look abroad” [Reuters] Deborah LaFetra, “Non-injury class actions don’t belong in federal court” [PLF]
Will animal rights groups have to pay hefty legal bill after losing Ringling Bros. suit? [BLT]
You shouldn’t need a lobbyist to build a house [Mead, Yglesias]
“Astorino and Westchester Win Against Obama’s HUD” [Brennan, NRO] My two cents [City Journal] Why not abolish HUD? [Kaus]
“Community organized breaking and entering,” Chicago style [Kevin Funnell; earlier, NYC]

Tags: animal rights, bloggers and the law, Chicago, class action settlements, class actions, fair housing, land use and zoning, loser pays, mortgages, movies film and videos, NYC, real estate

April 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:08:41 +0000

How ObamaCare will drive up cost of contraception [Avik Roy] Better idea: sell Pill over the counter [Virginia Postrel, Bloomberg]
Had been seized by authorities: obese 9-year-old returns home after dropping 50 pounds [Cleveland Plain Dealer, earlier]
Best campaign funding mechanism ever? [Ron Paul Forums, JPG, more explanation; but is it lawful?]
More appreciations of Bill Stuntz crimlaw book [Leon Neyfakh, Boston Globe, Stephen Smith and Jonathan Jacobs, Liberty and Law]
Changes in court rules could curb Philadelphia’s allure for mass tort forum-shoppers [Alison Frankel, Reuters] “Further Empirical Evidence on Forum Shopping in Philadelphia Civil Courts” [Josh Wright, earlier]
Coming: federal authority over private firms’ IT-security departments? [Jim Harper/Cato; Constantine von Hoffman/CIO]
“0.1% claim rate in ‘successful’ class action” [Ted Frank/PoL, AT&T case]

Tags: Child Protective Services, class action settlements, crime and punishment, obesity, Philadelphia

March 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:50:13 +0000

Roundup of James Q. Wilson appreciations [Michael Greve] The controversial book a 29-year-old Wilson never wrote [Helen Rittelmeyer]
“Secret Class Action Settlements” [Rhonda Wasserman (Pitt), SSRN, via Stier] “Classic scholarship: Class action cops” [Trask/Class Strategist] Where should class-action scholarship go next? [same, more]
So does this mean GOP’s overturn-Kelo bill would kill the Keystone pipeline? [Stoll]
Stossel on illegal lemonade stands and vague laws that make everyone guilty; guest star is Cato’s Harvey Silverglate [YouTube]
No Fluke? Linda Greenhouse’s recollection of Lilly Ledbetter case is fairly fictionalized [Ed Whelan, earlier]
Footsie with plaintiff-lawyer adversaries: “Allstate vs. former Allstate adjuster” [Ron Miller]
Benjamin Barton reviews the Winston-Crandall deregulate-lawyers book [MSLR/SSRN via Instapundit, earlier]

Tags: class action settlements, class actions, eminent domain, insurers, Lilly Ledbetter

March 9 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“The problem with suing Apple”

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:23:44 +0000

Belated and unsatisfactory lawsuit “relief”? Nothing especially Applelicious about that; it’s more a matter of joining the class-action crowd. [Rebecca Greenfield, Atlantic Wire] More: Ted Frank, Point of Law (who represents objector Marie Gryphon in the case).

Tags: Apple, cellphones, class action settlements, technology

“The problem with suing Apple” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Nutella class action settlements

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:31:52 +0000

Some things about the nationwide settlement — including a prospective $3.75-million attorneys’ fee for prosecuting a “truly BS claim” against the maker of the chocolate-nut spread over nutritional disclosures — stick in Russell Jackson’s craw. He doesn’t care for the separate, California-specific scoopful either (earlier here, etc.)

Tags: California, class action settlements, eat drink and be merry, obesity

Nutella class action settlements is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:11:45 +0000

A federal fishing raid, the Pew Charitable Trusts and a biased Business Week account [Nils Stolpe on Gloucester, Mass. fisheries, via Stoll]
Intimidating the judiciary? “Group Opposing Citizens United Pushes ‘Occupy the Courts’ Protest” Jan. 20 [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal] Mob rallies at Michigan governor’s private home [Meegan Holland, MLive] “Occupy” forces Gingrich to cancel event [Daily Caller] Earlier here, here, here, etc.
“Paper Airplane? Late for School? Shouting Too Loud? You’re Under Arrest!” [Free-Range Kids, Texas]
Spielberg in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” paid homage to earlier movie sequences without sweating permissions. Oh, for those days [Joho] “Cultural gems that should be in the public domain today” [Atlantic Wire, Tabarrok]
UPS settlement exaggerates benefits to class members [Ted Frank; related, CCAF] “Federal Judges Have Harsh Words, Rulings for Class Action Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [Lammi/WLF]
“Justice Breyer Calls Recusal Controversy a ‘Non-Issue’” [ABA Journal]
“Add Plaintiff-Lawyer Fees To The Cost Of Most Mergers” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes on Cornerstone Research report]

Tags: class action settlements, environment, Massachusetts, movies film and videos, police, recusals, schools, securities litigation, Texas

January 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Honda vs. “small claims flash mob” tale

Walter Olson — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:00:30 +0000

A much-linked L.A. Times account seemed somehow “off,” and George Wallace now explains why.

Tags: autos, class action settlements

Honda vs. “small claims flash mob” tale is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 30 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:03:05 +0000

“Copyright troll Righthaven in its death throes, domain going up for auction” [Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing]
Controversy over litigation finance continues [WaPo, NYPost]
Presumably unrelated to above: “Unpaid Bills Land Some Debtors Behind Bars” [NPR]
“Rent Control Violates Property Rights and Due Process” [Ilya Shapiro and Trevor Burrus, Cato, on Harmon v. Kimmel cert petition]
Child abuse horrors result in dubious policy proposals including moves to abolish statutes of limitation, cast wider mandatory-reporting net [Howard Wasserman/PrawfsBlawg, Kyle Graham/Concurring Opinions]
Schwab IRA class action settlement: lawyers get $500K while benefit to class is unclear [Lawrence Schonbron, Washington Times]
“State Court Challenges to Legislatively Enacted Tort Reforms” [Andrew Cook and Emily Kelchen, Federalist Society "State Court Docket Watch"]

Tags: child abuse, class action settlements, debtor-creditor law, litigation finance, RightHaven, statutes of limitations

December 30 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Class action settlements as marketing outreach

Walter Olson — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:35:35 +0000

At Paid Content, Jeff Roberts reports that Wal-Mart may have found a clever way to pitch its services at Netflix’s streaming subscribers, namely by settling a class action lawsuit to which they are party:

A federal court in California late last week approved a class-action settlement that requires Wal-Mart to pay out $27.5 million. But here’s the key element of the ruling: Wal-Mart will be allowed to pay the 40 million Netflix subscribers in the form of gift cards for Wal-Mart.com—where there is prominent advertising for Vudu, which rents and sells movies a la carte.

The court ruling is a blow to Netflix, which had earlier blasted the settlement as “the equivalent of a marketing campaign that costs Walmart only 68 cents per potential customer.”

Tags: class action settlements, movies film and videos, Wal-Mart

Class action settlements as marketing outreach is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system