Chicago federal appeals judges said objectors were right to argue a judge failed to give weight to evidence that the plaintiffs' lawyers have agreed to accept lesser amounts in other class action lawsuits on the West Coast
SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - In a victory for objectors who complain that class-action settlements too often feature cash fees for the lawyers but worthless coupons for their clients, a federal judge has put a law firm’s million-dollar fee on hold until he sees how many coupons consumers actually redeem.
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – A class action watchdog has earned more than $60,000 for work that helped show class action lawyers overcharged the class they represented in a $300 million settlement with State Street.
CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - A law firm that called Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action Fairness a “notorious professional objector” has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to dismiss Frank’s motion for sanctions, dismissing its description as a “mild flourish.”
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – A troubled class action lawsuit against the nation’s largest student loan servicer could soon become a troubled settlement.
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers whose fees were trimmed by more than $6 million after serious allegations of double-billing and other improprieties emerged in the State Street securities class action have urged the court to reject a fee request from the organization that took a lead role in uncovering the scandal.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge in Florida who in August tentatively approved a class action settlement including $10,000 “incentive fees” to named plaintiffs will now have to decide if final approval is appropriate considering the appellate court immediately above him has since ruled such fees to be illegal.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – Plaintiffs lawyers won’t recover anything after a federal judge decided to throw their $500,000 in requested fees into a separate fund created by a criticized class action settlement that she otherwise approved.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – There is more trouble for a class action settlement that gives no money to class members and $500,000 to lawyers who have mostly failed to make a case against the defendant.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - After the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to opine on whether it was fair that no money from an $8.5 million class action settlement actually went to class members, a critic of such agreements noted that lawyers will continue to succumb to the "perverse incentive" to line their own pockets this way.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that could end cy pres, the practice of steering money in class action settlements to organizations with absolutely no connection to the underlying lawsuit.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 31 will hear arguments in what could become a landmark case to decide whether attorneys in class action lawsuits can send class funds under the cy pres doctrine to the causes of their choosing.
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - The public might not get to view the findings of a special master tasked with examining why a $300 million class action settlement included inflated hourly rates and a suspicious $200,000 payment to a public defender who is the brother of one of the lead plaintiffs lawyers.
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge in Boston has delayed for another month the release of a special master’s report on allegations that class action lawyers submitted inflated bills to obtain $75 million in fees for negotiating a $300 million settlement of a securities class action against State Street Bank and Trust.
CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – The Competitive Enterprise Institute says plaintiffs lawyers have taken too large a chunk out of a proposed class action settlement featuring XPO Logistics.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) is opposing a proposed class action settlement involving Google and hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will hear its arguments.
The plaintiffs filed a two-page stipulation of dismissal without prejudice in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Oct. 24. Their voluntary dismissal comes nearly two months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit dismissed a proposed settlement agreement, describing it as “utterly worthless.”
The plaintiffs in the case alleged foot-long sandwiches sold at Subway restaurants were marketed as being 12 inches in length, when, in fact, they were not. According to their complaint, Subway’s alleged business practices violated state consumer protection statutes.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, earlier this year, sent the case back to a Minnesota federal district court to reconsider the objections of class member Leif Olson. In May, the federal court approved certification of the class action for a second time.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in its opinion last week, said the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota’s certification of the settlement class did not meet the standard of “rigorous analysis.”
