“All you need to do is punish the attorneys that are overbilling in a few of these cases,” Frank says, adding that disciplinary sanctions need to be on the table for there to be a true deterrent.
Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action Fairness is going to make history at the U.S. Supreme Court next term in Frank v. Gaos.
Law360 covers CCAF's Supreme Court case Frank v. Gaos.
Mealy's covers CCAF's Supreme Court case Frank v. Gaos.
Wednesday’s hearing is likely to expose “substantial shenanigans,” said class action activist Ted Frank.
‘Gobsmacking’ Fee Request: Haynes also challenges class counsel’s request of $284.5 million, 9.5 percent of the settlement’s value, in attorneys’ fees. He called the request ‘‘gobsmacking,’’ saying it will further dilute class recovery and ‘‘is based on the brazen overbilling of contract attorneys to the tune of nearly $100 million.’’
Law360 cited CCAF attorney Anna St. John and Director of Litigation Ted Frank after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear CEI's case, Frank v. Gaos. CEI hopes the court rules in our favor and creates a standard that forbids attorneys from misusing class action settlements to selfishly put themselves and third parties ahead of their clients. Justices are set for the first time to consider the cy pres remedy, which distributes awards in class actions to parties…
Critics of these settlements described them as a form of suspect collusion between plaintiffs' lawyers and corporate defendants, since both benefit by arranging a settlement. Leading the challenge to these deals is Ted Frank, a Washington lawyer who regularly objects to class-action settlements.
But Theodore Frank and Melissa Ann Holyoak objected to what is called a “cy pres” agreement and said Monday they were gratified the court had taken the case. “We are hopeful that the Supreme Court’s review will result in a standard forbidding attorneys from misusing class-action settlements to selfishly put themselves and third parties ahead of their clients,” said Frank
In objecting to the Google settlement, they said research centers based at Harvard and Stanford universities, among those slated for awards, had connections to both sides in the case: Google already supported the centers, and some plaintiffs’ attorneys had attended the schools.
