Julie Campbell, et al. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc.

Docket number: 2:22-cv-02261 (C.D. Ill.)

The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness represents an objector challenging a proposed class action settlement involving SiriusXM, arguing that the deal unfairly prioritizes attorneys’ fees over compensation for consumers.

The suit alleges that SiriusXM made telemarketing calls to individuals listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. The parties reached a proposed settlement valued at approximately $28 million. The Center’s objection highlights an imbalance in how those funds would be distributed.

Under the proposed agreement, class counsel seeks more than $9.6 million in attorneys’ fees—over 36% of the net settlement fund—while the settlement recovers less than $3 per class member. This modest fund extinguishes claims that Plaintiffs pleaded may be worth $1,500 under the TCPA’s statutory damages provisions. The requested fees far exceed typical market rates for cases of this size, where courts often award closer to 20–25% of the recovery. Class counsel failed to disclose key billing information, limiting the ability of class members to evaluate whether the fee request is justified. Moreover, the excessive fees request comes on the heels of their successful litigation bringing nearly identical claims against the same defendant. Similar prior litigation reduces lead counsel’s risk of nonpayment and creates efficiencies that should result in lesser fees.

The settlement is unsavory in several respects. First, notice of settlement is deficient because class counsel fails to disclose any quantitative information about the work performed, which handicaps class members from objecting to the fee request. The parties do not notify the class members of the allocational method used to distribute the class funds, nor of the relationship between lead class counsel’s firm and the proposed cy pres recipient of residual funds. Specifically, without notice to the class, the settlement improperly proposes to distribute a cy pres residual to an organization upon whose Board of Directors sits a named partner for lead class counsel’s firm. The settlement also imposes impermissible burdens on the right of objection.

The Center is asking the court to either require greater transparency around attorneys’ billing or reduce the fee award to approximately $5.5 million, which would increase the amount available to class members.

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