Objecting to the Classmates.com class action settlement is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Speaking at Duke Law on Monday is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

In April 2008, the Diet Drugs MDL district court awarded $567 million the class counsel in that case, basing the award in part on representations by class counsel about future class recovery. A year later, a plaintiff’s attorney requested the court reopen the question of the fee award because the class counsel had exaggerated those estimates. The district court refused, holding that the one-year delay in bringing the Rule 60(b) motion was not a “reasonable time.” There has been an appeal to the Third Circuit, and, today, the Center for Class Action Fairness filed an amicus brief in support of the appeal that itself provides a short overview of the history of the fen-phen MDL. Many thanks to Chris Arfaa for his generous help in filing the brief.

CCAF amicus brief in fen-phen fees case is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

And if you’re on Facebook, do become a fan of the Center for Class Action Fairness so you can keep up with us and others can learn about it.

The retreat of Grand Theft Auto: Class Action is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

CCAF on KOGO (San Diego) this evening is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Late last year, in a class action claiming that tech giant AOL LLC improperly inserted footers in its users’ emails, Los Angeles federal judge Christina Snyder awarded $25,000 in settlement funds to a Los Angeles legal-aid organization that has the judge’s husband on its board. …

The Virginia-based [sic] Center for Class Action Fairness objected, claiming the settlement raised a conflict of interest. Ted Frank, president of the group, said that to avoid potential conflicts, it would be better to require unclaimed settlement funds to be deposited into state coffers. “The problem is that parties can now give money to a judge’s preferred charity in the hopes that it will prompt the judge to rubber stamp a settlement,” he said.

“Proposed Facebook Settlement Comes Under Fire” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Of interest is a new revelation in the infamous Toshiba class action:

After few consumers availed themselves of a $2 billion settlement over supposedly defective laptop computers in 2000, for example, Toshiba America handed $353 million to a Beaumont charity whose chairman was plaintiff attorney Wayne Reaud, the lawyer on the case. Six years later the charity was still sitting on $250 million and the Texas attorney general sued for breach of fiduciary duty, including paying its president, W. Frank Newton, $560,000 in 2004. Newton is the former president of the State Bar of Texas.

“A Lawyer Who Tries to Block Settlements” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Blogosphere reaction is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system