Author: Ted Frank

This author has written 108 articles

WSJ: Congress Can Rescind the CFPB’s Gift to Trial Lawyers

Do Americans need more lawsuits? They’ll get them if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has its way. The CFPB—created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and still run by an Obama appointee—issued a rule in July barring financial institutions from including arbitration clauses in their contracts with customers. That means disputes would have to be settled by class-action lawsuits, which mostly benefit lawyers. The agency justifies its rule by claiming it…

<em>WSJ</em>: Congress Can Rescind the CFPB’s Gift to Trial Lawyers

Olive Oil Settlement Uses Slippery Tactics to Reward Attorneys at Consumers’ Expense

In too many settlements, the same lawyers who rail against deceptive marketing tactics use deceptive settlement provisions to unfairly appropriate the lion’s share of the money for themselves. Kumar v. Salov North America Corp., where the attorneys look to get over 300% of what their clients will, is a good example of this unwelcome phenomenon.

Olive Oil Settlement Uses Slippery Tactics to Reward Attorneys at Consumers’ Expense
Image credit: Lena

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…

Bi-Partisan Group of Attorneys General File Brief Supporting CCAF’s Challenge of ProFlowers’ Worthless Coupon Settlement
photo credit: www.proflowers.com

Center for Class Action Fairness Changes Landscape of ‘Cy Pres’ Settlements

This blog post was published when the Center for Class Action Fairness was a project of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) has long opposed abusive “cy pres” settlements that benefit third-party beneficiaries instead of compensating class members; Ted Frank wrote about the issue in 2008 before founding CCAF, and Ted Frank has testified to Congress concerning cy pres settlements. As Reuters reporter Alison Frankel wrote after CCAF’s win in the Eighth…

Center for Class Action Fairness Changes Landscape of ‘Cy Pres’ Settlements

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.

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”
photo credit: www.proflowers.com

Protecting consumers from swindlers: How ‘fake facts’ make millions for class-action lawyers

The too-common scam goes like this. Trial lawyers bring a class action against a business, alleging unfair charges or false advertising and seeking to recover a few dollars each for thousands or millions of its customers. It’s okay if the case is weak, because the defendant still finds it cheaper to settle the lawsuit for a small percentage of the total losses alleged than to fight on.

Protecting consumers from swindlers: How ‘fake facts’ make millions for class-action lawyers

Settlement Insurance Shows Need for Court Skepticism in Class Actions

A plaintiffs’ attorney and an insurance executive have created a business, Risk Settlements, that offers a “post-lawsuit settlement insurance product specifically designed to manage settlement risk, cap exposure and provide certainty to the uncertain world of class action settlements.” That this business model is viable—and that it purports to save class-action defendants millions of dollars in claims-made settlements—demonstrates the need for courts to provide scrutiny of what class-action settlements actually provide consumers.

Settlement Insurance Shows Need for Court Skepticism in Class Actions

CCAF Asks Supreme Court to Hear Challenge on Duracell Class Action Settlement

Today, the Center for Class Action Fairness petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging an abusive class action practice where trial lawyers pay themselves the bulk of the cash recovery ($5.7 million), the class members receive just a fraction of that ($344,000), and the settlement hands out millions to third parties who are not part of the class.

CCAF Asks Supreme Court to Hear Challenge on Duracell Class Action Settlement

In re Capital One TCPA Litigation Seventh Circuit appeal

We do not contend that a court can never award such a generous hourly rate. But the Seventh Circuit has “held repeatedly that, when deciding on appropriate fee levels in common-fund cases, courts must do their best to award counsel the market price for legal services, in light of the risk of nonpayment and the normal rate of compensation in the market at the time.” We do not believe a sophisticated arms-length transaction would produce this sort of windfall for these sorts of results, and we have appealed, filing our opening brief Monday. 

<em>In re Capital One TCPA Litigation</em> Seventh Circuit appeal

Big cy pres victory in 8th Circuit: Oetting v. Green Jacobson

For years, parties have used cy pres—the practice of giving settlement money to charity instead of the class—in abusive ways. When proposed by defendants, cy pres can be used to create the illusion of relief to justify greater attorneys' fees at the expense of the class when in fact all that is happening is that the defendant is changing accounting entries on charitable donations it would have made anyway. When cy pres is used to justify…

Big cy pres victory in 8th Circuit: <em>Oetting v. Green Jacobson</em>
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