WSJ op-ed: Class-Action Lawyers Play Quota Games
Adam Schulman: If counsel assigns work, or courts appoint attorneys, on the basis of anything other than merit, it violates the duty to pursue class members’ interests.
Class actions settlements that never tell the class: the strange resolution of Buckeye Tree Lodge v. Expedia
Instead of asking for the court to send notice to the class members and giving them the opportunity to comment on a proposed settlement that is going to bind them, the class attorneys asked for the court skip that step entirely and simply approve the settlement. And, shockingly, the court did exactly that!
Kavanaugh’s View of Judicial Power: Could It Be Tested at Supreme Court in Frank v. Gaos?
Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing is slated to begin Tuesday, September 4, at 9:30 a.m. before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is safe to say that the hearing will be replete with the usual senatorial posturing and pandering. But if they actually get around to asking the nominee some substantive questions, among those that loom largest is how Kavanaugh conceives of the judicial power. Given his dozen years on the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh…
Bi-Partisan Group of Attorneys General File Brief Supporting CCAF’s Challenge of ProFlowers’ Worthless Coupon Settlement
Attorneys general from 13 states filed an amicus brief supporting the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) in its challenge of an unfair class action coupon settlement that involves Provide Commerce, Inc., the parent company of Proflowers.com. The case, In re: Easysaver Rewards Litigation, is on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In Easysaver, class counsel intentionally inflated the value of the settlement—to the tune of $38 million—in order to…
photo credit: www.proflowers.com
A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell Just as Sweet, but These Flower-Delivery Settlement Coupons Are Noisome Even When You Call Them “E-Credits”
Academics don’t often have the opportunity to publish an article opining on the correctness of a pending appeal, but our appeal in EasySaver Rewards Litigation, challenging a settlement that pays attorneys nearly $9 million and the class only $225,000 and nearly worthless coupons, is one such case.
photo credit: www.proflowers.com
Footlong Subs and Other Frivolous Lawsuits
In class-action lawsuits the threat of astronomical liability drives many defendants to settle — even if the plaintiffs’ chances of success are negligible. But because there’s only so much money that defendants are willing to spend, such nuisance lawsuits often lead to settlements where the attorneys get more than their fair share. It works like a formula: The plaintiffs’ attorneys and the few named representative plaintiffs divvy up the entire cash proceeds, leaving the remainder of the class with a potpourri of worthless window dressing.
A Tale of Two Settlements: The Virtue of Being Adversarial in Class Action Lawsuits
This blog post was previously published on the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Open Market Blog. I really only want to talk about one settlement—the settlement in Rougvie v. Ascena Retail Group, No. 15-cv-724 (E.D. Pa.). Ascena is the corporate owner of the Justice brand clothing franchise, which caters to pre-adolescent girls in 900 stores throughout the country. If you’ve ever walked past what you thought was a Care Bears shrine in your…
Victory! Redman v. Radioshack
CCAF won a tremendous victory for class members in Redman v. Radioshack, just eleven days after oral argument!
Abusive appeal bonds
For all the plaintiffs' bar talks about "access to justice," many trial lawyers will not hesitate to run roughshod over a class member's right of appeal if they think it will short-circuit a meritorious appeal that would jeopardize an excessive fee award.
