“Only two of the estimated 232,000 class members claimed the coupons” in a class action led by Edelson McGuire LLP. Defendant Dick’s Sporting Goods “agreed not to oppose the plaintiff’s request for $210,000 in attorney fees and costs and a $3,500 incentive award,” but an Orange County, Calif. judge took away a large chunk of that sum because… why? Because some of the lawyers angling for it had not been admitted to practice in California, that’s why. [Kenneth Ofgang, Metropolitan News-Enterprise; Golba v. Dick’s Sporting Goods, unpublished]
9 Comments
What would happen if the fees aware to the plaintiff’s attorneys was based on the number of coupons requested by class members? My guess is that the number of class action suits would drop dramatically. One upon a time I was awarded 52 cents in a very large class action suit. Almost all other class members received the same award. I had to spend the price of a stamp, which was over half of the 52 cents, to claim my portion of the settlement.
And then they probably sent you a check which probably cost $0.15 in paper ink and processing through the banking system.
Oh, silly me, I forgot the postage and the cost of the envelope. Anther 3 cents for the envelop and of course the postage. So all told, for LTMG to get his $0.52 cost $0.70 to $0.80
Remember that Blockbuster settlement where the class members got a coupon for a free video rental? Absurd.
Paul wrote:
Remember that Blockbuster settlement where the class members got a coupon for a free video rental? Absurd.
Was that just before they went belly-up?
Easy solution: put all the funds allotted for claimants into a pool, and split it.
The last thing we would want to do is stop punishing companies for bad behavior. Whatever we do to the money is fine, and distributing it to wronged parties is best, but the absolute worst would be “less class action lawsuits”. We don’t have to pick between the best and worst, we can pick the second best.
Why shouldn’t we want less class action lawsuits?
The majority of them are frivolous as indicated by the ridiculous settlements that give class members a pittance that isn’t worth the effort of claiming.
Make the lawyers work on contingency. They get the smaller of usual and customary (or whatever the current method of remuneration is), or a third of actual funds disbursed to the claimants. And their fee would be in kind; if the customer gets a coupon, then the lawyer gets a similar coupon.
That way they would have at least some incentive to include into the settlement a useful means of benefiting the claimants.
Almost every time I buy gas I’m required to enter my zip code. Is that illegal?