A deal resolving claims that online consumers were automatically enrolled in a rewards program will stand, but the $8.7 million fee for class counsel must be recalculated, the Ninth Circuit held Oct. 3.
“We are gratified that the court rejected class counsel’s attempt to evade the Class Action Fairness Act’s restrictions on coupon settlements, but the fact that the court was willing to countenance attorneys choosing to prefer their alma mater and local San Diego schools to nationwide class recovery while collecting 15 to 40 times as much as their clients shows why the Supreme Court needs to reverse in Frank v. Gaos. We are considering our options for further review.”
While Judge Durkin refused Frank’s request to intervene as a litigant, the judge said the plaintiffs’ attorneys must address Frank’s contentions concerning the Walgreen decision before allowing the attorneys to keep their fees.
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney Ted Frank discussed class action lawsuits on Lawsuit Watch, hosted by Curt Schroder.
In what's believed to be the first time a federal appellate court has been given a chance to address the issue, the Center for Class Action Fairness filed a brief with the Seventh Circuit that attacks the mootness fee racket.
Yesterday, the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) filed its opening brief in Alcarez v. Akorn, Inc., et al. CCAF is challenging an order denying CCAF’s intervention in three of six Akorn actions that were pending in the district court.
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…
Theodore Frank has been firing shots at so-called “cy pres” settlements—an especially controversial component of some class actions—for more than a decade. On October 31, he will take his crusade all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, lock, stock and barrel.
CCAF senior attorney Melissa Holyoak told me: “Attorneys’ fees should always be based upon and proportionate to the relief actually received by class members—that’s something we fight for on a regular basis.”
"Cy pres-only settlement arrangements embody the worst flaws of the class action settlement system and are notable in their disservice to consumers," said the coalition, which is led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. "In cy pres-only deals, defendants and class counsel secure their own goals from the litigation while bypassing the class."
