coupon settlements – Overlawyered

November 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 10:55:05 +0000

“A Decade After Realizing It Can’t Threaten A Critic Online, UCLA Returns To Threaten A Critic Online” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt; Adam Steinbaugh, FIRE]
“D.C. Bureaucrats Are Trying to Make Parents Get a License to Let Children Play Together” [Kerry McDonald, FEE; Karin Lips, Washington Post; Lenore Skenazy, Reason]
“If you were ripped off by a couple of companies that enrolled consumers in membership-rewards programs without their consent, congratulations, you’re entitled to a $20 credit to buy more stuff from them. Ninth Circuit: Your class counsel, however, is probably not entitled to $8.7 million in attorney’s fees for winning you a coupon.” [John Kenneth Ross, IJ “Short Circuit” on In Re EasySaver Rewards Litigation]
Congestion highway pricing and the “Lexus Lanes” epithet, supervised injection facilities, single payer in one state and more in my new Maryland roundup at Free State Notes;
Chain that touched off public outrage stands to gain by reaction: “Licensing pet groomers won’t help pets. It will hurt low-income groomers.” [Shoshana Weissman and Jesse Kelley, R Street]
“A Case for an Executive Order to Rein in Guidance Documents and other ‘Regulatory Dark Matter'” [Clyde Wayne Crews, CEI]

Tags: coupon settlements, Maryland, occupational licensure, regulation and its reform

November 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Class action roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 10:01:41 +0000

“For instance, linalool, which is cited as a cockroach insecticide by the law firm, is found in plants like mints and scented herbs. While it’s also used in insecticides, it’s not poisonous for humans…” [Aimee Picchi, CBS News on suit claiming that LaCroix flavored water wrongly claims “all natural” status]
“Appeals Court Strikes $8.7M in Legal Fees Based on Coupons in Class Action Settlement” [Ted Frank objection in ProFlowers and RedEnvelope class action; Amanda Bronstad, The Recorder] “Judge: Lawyers must justify fee requests for investor suits withdrawn vs Akorn over proxy disclosures” [Ted Frank objection in investor class action against Akorn Inc.; Jonathan Bilyk, Cook County Record]
Study: class action lawsuits hit innovative companies the hardest [Alex Verkhivker, Chicago Booth on study by Elisabeth Kempf of Chicago Booth and Oliver Spalt of Tilburg University]
“It’s Possible Woman Suing Over Sugar In ONE Protein Bars Never Actually Ate One” [Mary Ann Magnell, Legal NewsLine] And it is surprising how many reports continue to indulge the notion that typical consumer class actions spring from consumer grievance as opposed to lawyers’ entrepreneurial spotting of chances [ABA Journal on slack-fill suits]
“DOJ Tells Court: Class Lawyers Already Got $60M in Fees. Now They Want More? [Marcia Coyle, National Law Journal on Native American farmer case] “noting that it was difficult for him to believe the few boilerplate documents entered into the record took hundreds of hours to create. ” [D.M. Herra, Cook County Record; Western Union text messages]
“State Street settlement fiasco has Arkansas lawmakers questioning state’s role in class actions” [John O’Brien, Legal NewsLine, earlier here, etc.]

Tags: Arkansas, attorneys' fees, Class Action Fairness Act, class action settlements, class actions, coupon settlements

Class action roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“In settlement with Southwest Airlines, lawyers got cash, plaintiffs got drink coupons.”

Walter Olson — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 04:15:27 +0000

“A federal appeals court has upheld a settlement in which Southwest Airlines passengers got free drink vouchers but lawyers who sued the airline got $1.65 million in cash.” [AP “Big Story”]

Tags: airlines, coupon settlements, Southwest Airlines

“In settlement with Southwest Airlines, lawyers got cash, plaintiffs got drink coupons.” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Only two of the estimated 232,000 class members claimed the coupons”

Walter Olson — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 09:43:24 +0000

“Only two of the estimated 232,000 class members claimed the coupons” in a class action led by Edelson McGuire LLP. Defendant Dick’s Sporting Goods “agreed not to oppose the plaintiff’s request for $210,000 in attorney fees and costs and a $3,500 incentive award,” but an Orange County, Calif. judge took away a large chunk of that sum because… why? Because some of the lawyers angling for it had not been admitted to practice in California, that’s why. [Kenneth Ofgang, Metropolitan News-Enterprise; Golba v. Dick’s Sporting Goods, unpublished]

Tags: attorneys' fees, California, class action settlements, coupon settlements

“Only two of the estimated 232,000 class members claimed the coupons” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Orange County lowers the boom on Axe

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 04:15:11 +0000

“Recently, the consumer protection unit of the Orange County (CA) District Attorney’s Office filed suit against Unilever, parent company of AXE, accusing the company of fudging the packaging of its male grooming products.” The charges, which were filed concomitantly with a proposed settlement the same day, do not claim that Axe misstated the quantity of product contained by weight, but say its packaging employed “false bottoms, false sidewalls, false lids or false coverings” which “serve no legitimate purpose and mislead consumers as to the amount of product contained in the containers. …Apparently, the DA has never purchased a bag of potato chips.” It is unclear from the coverage whether Orange County consumers were constrained from ascertaining how much product was in one of the packages by, say, lifting it to see how heavy it was, or looking at the number of ounces on the label. In settlement (the same day) of the charges, the company agreed to pay $750,000 to Orange County and $24,000 to its D.A.’s office, and to take out ads in various California newspapers with $3 coupons good off a consumer purchase of Axe. [Nick Farr, Abnormal Use; Orange County Register]

The Orange County district attorney’s office under Tony Rackauckas is emerging as an Overlawyered favorite, having knocked an impressive $16 million out of Toyota in the sudden-acceleration affair even though the cars in question do not suddenly accelerate, of which $4 million went to a locally influential tort attorney; the office has also kept mum about arrangements it has with tort attorneys. And of course Rackauckas’s office has lately been embroiled in one of the nation’s most prominent scandals of prosecutorial abuse (with retaliation angle).

P.S. Oh, and here is coverage of “slack fill” class action suits organized by private lawyers against both Unilever/Axe and competitor Procter & Gamble, confirming that this wasn’t exactly a solitary frolic on the county’s part. More: Amy Alkon.

Tags: advertising, California, coupon settlements, Los Angeles, prosecution, prosecutorial abuse

Orange County lowers the boom on Axe is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Class action roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 04:05:41 +0000

Ted Frank on Whirlpool front-loading washer class action [PoL] $1.5 million for attorneys, $41,510 for class? Judge balks at Amex gift card settlement [same] EasySaver coupon settlement “conservatively” values coupons at 85% of face value [same]
Cy pres: Roger Parloff on tech-defendant class-action cy pres [Fortune] Privacy groups nominated for cy pres windfall in Facebook settlement [Wired, PoL]
“Class-Action Lawyers Face Triple Threat At Supreme Court” [Daniel Fisher at Forbes; related, Michael Bobelian]
Georgia high court: company could be on hook for $456 million for sending junk faxes [UPI] Will unwanted text-message class actions be the sequel to junk-fax litigation? [Almeida, Sedgwick via WLF]
“Class action summer camp” series from Andrew Trask includes refreshers on key concepts such as typicality, adequacy, etc.
“Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Comcast” [Wajert, earlier]
City of Des Moines class action: we owe it to ourselves [Iowa Appeals] For another case where there was high overlap between plaintiff class members and those expected to pay damages, see Sept. 2, 1999 [Milwaukee tainted municipal water system]

Tags: class action settlements, class actions, coupon settlements, cy pres, Georgia, Iowa, Supreme Court

Class action roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Unique Texas class action law scuttles $0 shareholder derivative settlement”

Walter Olson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 04:22:48 +0000

“Texas has a unique solution to the problem of coupon settlements: if the lawyers settle for coupons or non-cash relief, they have to be paid in coupons or non-cash relief.” Some scoffed at this as a gimmick, but it seems to have had an effect for the better, most notably in a recent case where the court “prohibited a $1.1 million fee in a $0 settlement over immaterial merger disclosures.” [Ted Frank, Point of Law]

Tags: coupon settlements, Texas

“Unique Texas class action law scuttles $0 shareholder derivative settlement” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Injured by Spider-Man musical? Call now

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:56:37 +0000

Saturday Night Live has this lawyer-ad parody (via Lowering the Bar). Note the disturbing prevalence of coupon settlements. More on the troubled production from The Onion.

Tags: coupon settlements, humor

Injured by Spider-Man musical? Call now is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:07:08 +0000

New York State Sen. Jim Alesi drops much-criticized suit against constituent couple in whose house he was injured while trespassing [WHEC, Techdirt]
“Distracted moving”: campaign heats up for laws prohibiting pedestrians from texting [Alkon, Greenfield, Popehat]
“Good News: Tort Costs Eased in 2009. Bad News: They Still Totaled $248 Billion.” [CJAC, Insurance Journal, Towers Perrin report (PDF)]
As Wisconsin moves to limit tort suits, lawyers race to file cases before deadline [Journal-Sentinel, NAM, NJLRA]
Settling scientific and scholarly quarrels in France by way of defamation actions? Criminal libel complaints? [Ron Bailey] Update on Joseph Weiler criminal libel case [Heller, Opinio Juris, earlier here, etc.]
NPR interview with Seth Mnookin on vaccine book [via TortsProf, earlier; plus, New York Observer]
“HP Tries a Coupon Settlement” [PoL]
“Strange but true” role of former Republican Senator Fred Thompson lobbying for Tennessee trial lawyers will not particularly surprise Overlawyered readers [WSJ Law Blog; background here, here, etc.]

Tags: coupon settlements, France, libel slander and defamation, tort reform, traffic laws, vaccines, Wisconsin

January 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Objecting to the Classmates.com class action settlement

Ted Frank — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:49:43 +0000

Today is the last day for class members to object in the Classmates.com class action settlement —$117 thousand for the class, $1.05 million for the attorneys. For more details on how to file, see my post at the Center for Class Action Fairness (which is not affiliated with Overlawyered).

Tags: CCAF, class action settlements, class actions, coupon settlements

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