Class action lawyers: give us a live client to replace our dead one

Clients as figureheads dept.: One of the Lakin Law Firm’s class actions hit a snag when the firm discovered that the named plaintiff, Manuel Hernandez, had died two years earlier. And so the law firm petitioned an Illinois court to force the defendant, American Family Insurance, to release customer names so that it could more […]

Clients as figureheads dept.: One of the Lakin Law Firm’s class actions hit a snag when the firm discovered that the named plaintiff, Manuel Hernandez, had died two years earlier. And so the law firm petitioned an Illinois court to force the defendant, American Family Insurance, to release customer names so that it could more conveniently line up a new client and keep the action going. (Steve Korris, “American Family should provide name of live plaintiff to substitute dead one, attorneys argue”, Madison St. Clair Record, Sept. 13).

3 Comments

  • I can just see it now: companies being required to keep a list of potential parties they may have “wronged” that would be made available to any attorney seeking some extra revenue. The list, of course, should also include those who think the list was deliberately shortened to be evasive.

  • “Manuel Hernandez died in 2004, but no one told Stack until 2006.”

    Failing to notice that your client had died two years earlier seems like prima facie malpractice. How can they pretend that they were meaninfully representing this fellow if he were dead. Further, would review of any of their legal work during the client’s persistently dead state reveal that they faked any of their legal postings with the court?

  • No snark, but a real question: If the class has been certified, wouldn’t any member of the class’ name be usable?