Overlawyered » class action settlements http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Nutella class action settlements http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/nutella-class-action-settlement/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/nutella-class-action-settlement/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:31:52 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27066 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.)

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/nutella-class-action-settlement/feed/ 0 January 18 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-18-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-18-roundup-4/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:11:45 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26848
  • 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]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-18-roundup-4/feed/ 1     Honda vs. “small claims flash mob” tale http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/honda-vs-small-claims-flash-mob-tale/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/honda-vs-small-claims-flash-mob-tale/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:00:30 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26554 A much-linked L.A. Times account seemed somehow “off,” and George Wallace now explains why.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/honda-vs-small-claims-flash-mob-tale/feed/ 0     December 30 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-30-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-30-roundup/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:03:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26439
  • “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"]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-30-roundup/feed/ 0     Class action settlements as marketing outreach http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/class-action-settlements-as-marketing-outreach/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/class-action-settlements-as-marketing-outreach/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:35:35 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24796 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.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/class-action-settlements-as-marketing-outreach/feed/ 1     August 30 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-30-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-30-roundup-2/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:28:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24307
  • “He coulda been a credenza”: actor’s estate sues over unauthorized “Brando” furniture line [The Daily via Balko] “Motorcycle Gang Sues Over ‘My Boyfriend’s A Hell’s Angel’ T-Shirt” [CBS-LA]
  • EEOC decries employer discrimination on the basis of applicants’ criminal records, recommends curbing background checks [WSJ Law Blog, FastCasual, Hyman, Greenfield] Bill in San Francisco would make felons a protected class in jobs, housing [Fox]
  • Why are Obama officials intent on reducing due process protections for those accused of campus sexual misconduct? [Silverglate, WSJ; Philadelphia Magazine, Samantha Harris/NY Post, Ciamarella, Daily Caller (AAUP objects to plan); links at SAVE] A contrasting view [Roderick Hills, Prawfsblawg]
  • 9th Circuit rejects Bluetooth class action settlement to which Ted Frank’s CCAF objected [Fisher, NLJ, Frank]
  • Lawyer who represents jogger in product liability suit expects to file more actions claiming Skechers sneakers responsible for falls [BLT]
  • Part of a balanced breakfast: “Why the lawsuit against Nutella is bunk” [Nadia Arumugam, Slate] Update: Judge denies motion to dismiss [Russell Jackson]
  • Experts agree it’s OK to nominate Overlawyered for an ABA “100 Best Legal Blogs” slot here.
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-30-roundup-2/feed/ 4     August 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-12-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-12-roundup-2/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:08:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24235
  • More reviews of Schools for Misrule: Counterpoint (U. of Chicago), Wilson Trivino at PurePolitics.com;
  • “Cops Collar 12 Year Old for “Walking Alone” in Downtown Toronto” [Free-Range Kids] Cop tells mom kids under ten “by law are not allowed outside unsupervised except in their parents’ yard.” [western Maryland, same]
  • As lawmakers seek budget cuts, school finance litigators are on the march to counter their plans [WSJ Law Blog]
  • Wouldn’t waive regs: “U.S. blocks $1 million Italian supercar” [CNN Money]
  • You see, entrepreneurial suit-filing does create jobs: “Hike in Wage-and-Hour Litigation Spurs Demand for Calif. Employment Law Associates” [ABA Journal] How U.S. Congress devastated American Samoa through minimum wage hikes [Mark Perry]
  • CCAF objects in Sirius class action settlement [PoL, earlier]
  • “The Phantom Menace of Sleep Deprived Doctors” [Darshak Sanghavi, NY Times Magazine]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-12-roundup-2/feed/ 1     Snap, crackle, ka-ching http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/snap-crackle-ka-ching/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/snap-crackle-ka-ching/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:16:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24016 Kellogg is paying several million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit over the marketing of Rice Krispies; according to Ted Frank, the attorneys are asking for $1.3 million while their client class is getting less than that. [Point of Law, more]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/snap-crackle-ka-ching/feed/ 0     July 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-12-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-12-roundup-2/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:42:47 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23782
  • Not for first time, Dahlia Lithwick misrepresents Wal-Mart case [Ponnuru, Whelan, earlier here and here]
  • Merciful gods, please spare us ghastly “Caylee’s Law” proposal [Josh Blackman, Reuters, Greenfield, Frank] More on constitutional flaws [Robson, Tribe]
  • Mark Perry on efforts to replace the relatively open-entry Washington, D.C. taxi system with NYC-style cartelization via medallion;
  • “Wrongful Convictions: How many innocent Americans are behind bars?” [Balko]
  • “Persaud identified himself as a juror, offering to fix the verdict for a fee.” [CBS NY; Long Island med-mal case]
  • “Is the Common Law the Solution to Pollution?” [Jonathan Adler, PERC]
  • “Rice Krispies class action settlement” [Ted Frank]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-12-roundup-2/feed/ 0     Hitting a Sirius jackpot http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/hitting-a-sirius-jackpot/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/hitting-a-sirius-jackpot/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 05:05:19 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23580 Lawyers expect major benefits from the settlement of a suit against the satellite-radio service, though class members won’t be getting cash [Blessing v. Sirius XM Radio Settlement Site]

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