Insurance News Net mentions the Center for Class Action Fairness and explains why Ted Frank started the nonprofit organization.
That’s where Frank comes in. He left the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute to start the Center for Class Action Fairness in 2009. The center represents for free class members who object to settlements.
While there are other attorneys who represent objectors to settlements, the lawyers often are interested in holding up the settlement long enough to get a cut of the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees, not in breaking up the settlement, Frank said. Frank set up the center as a nonprofit, so he can’t do that, he said. The center, which is funded by charitable foundation Donors Trust Inc., can’t take on cases for profit, but it can ask for attorneys’ fees if it wins a case.
“I saw a need, and I didn’t see anyone in the space doing it the way it had to be done,” Frank said. “We have a role to play because of the incentives for everyone else…There are far too many [settlements] out there that benefit attorneys and don’t benefit class members.”
Frank’s wins include a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that tossed a settlement of a case against Bluetooth headset manufacturers who allegedly didn’t give prominent enough warnings about hearing loss. Consumers would have gotten no cash, and plaintiffs’ attorneys would have gotten $850,000.
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