Overlawyered » coupon settlements

Injured by Spider-Man musical? Call now

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:56:37 +0000

Saturday Night Live has this lawyer-ad parody (via Lowering the Bar). Note the disturbing prevalence of coupon settlements. More on the troubled production from The Onion.

Tags: coupon settlements, humor

Injured by Spider-Man musical? Call now is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:07:08 +0000

New York State Sen. Jim Alesi drops much-criticized suit against constituent couple in whose house he was injured while trespassing [WHEC, Techdirt]
“Distracted moving”: campaign heats up for laws prohibiting pedestrians from texting [Alkon, Greenfield, Popehat]
“Good News: Tort Costs Eased in 2009. Bad News: They Still Totaled $248 Billion.” [CJAC, Insurance Journal, Towers Perrin report (PDF)]
As Wisconsin moves to limit tort suits, lawyers race to file cases before deadline [Journal-Sentinel, NAM, NJLRA]
Settling scientific and scholarly quarrels in France by way of defamation actions? Criminal libel complaints? [Ron Bailey] Update on Joseph Weiler criminal libel case [Heller, Opinio Juris, earlier here, etc.]
NPR interview with Seth Mnookin on vaccine book [via TortsProf, earlier; plus, New York Observer]
“HP Tries a Coupon Settlement” [PoL]
“Strange but true” role of former Republican Senator Fred Thompson lobbying for Tennessee trial lawyers will not particularly surprise Overlawyered readers [WSJ Law Blog; background here, here, etc.]

Tags: coupon settlements, France, libel slander and defamation, tort reform, traffic laws, vaccines, Wisconsin

January 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Objecting to the Classmates.com class action settlement

Ted Frank — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:49:43 +0000

Today is the last day for class members to object in the Classmates.com class action settlement —$117 thousand for the class, $1.05 million for the attorneys. For more details on how to file, see my post at the Center for Class Action Fairness (which is not affiliated with Overlawyered).

Tags: CCAF, class action settlements, class actions, coupon settlements

Objecting to the Classmates.com class action settlement is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:24:43 +0000

Many of our readers liked the ruling, but someone didn’t: “Judge censured for ordering class-action lawyer to take pay in $125,000 worth of gift-cards” [BoingBoing, ABA Journal, Leonard/L.A. Times, Lowering the Bar]
“NFL Concedes In Who Dat Battle” [Lowering the Bar, more, earlier; here's a protest t-shirt, and more on those]
Some plaintiff’s lawyers give their side of the story, disputing fraud allegations in Dole banana-worker pesticide cases [Bronstad, NLJ, earlier]
“Google Blog Bundle — 42 criminal defense blogs” [Mark Bennett] And while you’re at it, why not take a moment right now to put Overlawyered in your RSS blog reader?
Massachusetts hardball: state lawmaker says private law schools might be breaking antitrust laws in working to oppose state school proposed in his district [ABA Journal via Above the Law; public law school plan OK'd]
Making the rounds: why medieval trial by ordeal may not have been so crazy after all [Peter Leeson, Boston Globe and full paper (PDF) via Volokh]
“Rothstein E-Mails Reveal Role of Former Plaintiffs’ Lawyer” [Brian Baxter, AmLaw Litigation Daily]
Obama: I tried to reach across aisle on medical liability reform but GOP wasn’t nibbling. Fact check please [Wood, PoL]

Tags: antitrust, banana pesticide litigation fraud, Barack Obama, class action settlements, coupon settlements, football, law schools, Massachusetts, medical malpractice, Scott Rothstein, Super Bowl

February 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:18:07 +0000

Other motorist in fatal crash should have been detained after earlier traffic stop, says widow in suit against Kane County, Ill. sheriff’s office [Chicago Tribune]
Now with flashing graphic: recap of Demi Moore skinny-thigh Photoshop nastygram flap [Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing, Kennerly]
Blawg Review #245 is hosted by Charon QC;
Expensive, unproven, and soon on your insurance bill? State lawmakers mull mandate for autism therapy coverage [KY3.com, Springfield, Missouri]
“NBC airs segment on Ford settlement: Lawyers get $25 million, plaintiffs get a coupon” [NJLRA]
“Drawing on emotion”: high-profile patent plaintiff’s lawyer Niro writes book on how to win trials [Legal Blog Watch]
“Virginia Tech faces lawsuit over student’s suicide” [AP/WaPo]
Maryland lawmaker’s Howard-Dean-style candor: “you take care of your base… It’s labor and trial lawyers that get Democrats in office” [Wood, ShopFloor]

Tags: autism, coupon settlements, Ford, juries, Maryland, police, politics, Raymond Niro, student suicide, Virginia Tech

January 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Honda fuel economy settlement

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:02:36 +0000

Objectors, including the offices of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 25 other AGs, say the coupons, free instructional DVD and other benefits to the class aren’t very valuable. Lawyers are slated to get $2.95 million. [Christopher Jensen, NYT "Wheels" blog; Center for Class Action Fairness (h/t Ted in comments)]

Tags: autos, class action settlements, coupon settlements

Honda fuel economy settlement is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Getting your ducks in a row

Ted Frank — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:20:08 +0000

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.).

Tags: CCAF, class action settlements, class actions, coupon settlements, don't, privacy

Getting your ducks in a row is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lawyers paid in gift cards, cont’d

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:01:14 +0000

Among the many reactions to our item last week on a Los Angeles judge who ordered that class action counsel be paid in gift cards (having negotiated only a gift-card settlement for the class) was one from Politics Across the Pond: “This should happen a lot more often, which would make it happen a lot less often.”

Tags: coupon settlements

Lawyers paid in gift cards, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Class action lawyers to be paid in gift cards

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:30:11 +0000

The client class members were to receive only gift cards, not cash, in the settlement with Windsor Fashions, a clothing retailer, so Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brett Klein thought it only fair to provide that Yorba Linda attorney Neil B. Fineman be paid his fee with “12,500 ten-dollar Windsor Fashions gift cards.” (Metropolitan News-Enterprise via California Civil Justice Blog) (& welcome Megan McArdle readers).

Tags: class action settlements, coupon settlements

Class action lawyers to be paid in gift cards is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Grand Theft Auto: Class Action Objection II

Ted Frank — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:12:55 +0000

I never thought I’d be involved in a hot-coffee lawsuit, but Gamepolitics covers my intervention and objection to the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas class action settlement, which I predicted before the suit was even filed.

(I corrected a mistake in the earlier post; I said I purchased GTA:SA for the Xbox 360 when, of course, I purchased it for the Xbox. Fortunately, my affidavit to the court was correctly phrased.)

Tags: class actions, coupon settlements, Grand Theft Auto, Ted Frank, videogames

Grand Theft Auto: Class Action Objection II is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system