Mastodawn

I am a licensed attorney (in California) and also admitted before various Federal district courts.

Today I got yet another of those postcards about a class action settlement - you know, the kind where the harmed victims get a pittance while the attorneys walk away with the lion's share.

In this case, the attorneys will get about $75,000,000, the lead plaintiffs maybe $20,000, and the rest of us ... probably close to nada.

Class actions are a good thing - especially since yesterday when SCOTUS has constrained the scope of judicial orders.

But class actions where the action is really a means for certain law firms to tailor cases to generate vast piles of income while the actual victims get a lollypop, are, to my mind, both unprofessional and unethical.

Yeah, I'll send in my claim form - but I don't anticipate that I'll get enough in return to cover the cost of the postage stamp.

Cass M 🇨🇦

@karlauerbach I think might have gotten sunglasses from a Porsche Class Action about the beige dashboard creating hazardous/ugly/I dunno windshield reflections. Didn't sign on. Beige dash didn't bother me and I'm kind of sad that's not an option any more. Neither is the grey interior I have now🤷‍♀️

Karl Auerbach Jun 28

@cass_m My BMW had horrid reflections from the windscreen of the top of the dash; I almost got out a bottle of shoe polish.

My Miata is much better but there are a few spots where metalic knobs reflect.

My new Hyundai is almost perfect in this regard except for a lighter colored strip on the top edge of the long screen that substitutes for a dashboard (they do also have real knobs and buttons.)

When I used to race we would blacken everything with flat black paint. I've also had to do that with lights in theatre productions. (There's a nice product called "black wrap" that is aluminum foil that is anodized flat black. It isn't pretty, but it works.)

BTW, the new Smith sunglasses I got have a tan frame rather than my normal flat black - I wonder whether I am getting fashionable in my old age.

Den of Earth Jun 28

@karlauerbach @cass_m
I wonder whether there will ever be any resolution for those damn dashboard screens that are installed at a slight upward angle so that a low sun behind your right shoulder is reflected like a mirror right in your face. A vertical mount would have been effortless and prevent this situation.

Karl Auerbach Jun 29

@DenOfEarth @cass_m I have not had that happen to me. However, my memory is tickling me about anti-reflective "dulling" sprays that are used in photography. I did a quick search and came up with a video, URL below.

(In addition, reflections are partially polarized, which is why polarized lenses can be very useful in some situations.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBAiWUCiNCo

Cinematography Tip: Remove Glare from Reflective Objects with Dulling Spray

YouTube

@karlauerbach I have always wondered how that’s even legal. It seems so obviously extractive.

Many years ago, I was in the class for a suit against an airline. We got $200 vouchers which were so restricted, they were basically worthless.

I felt that in all fairness, the attorneys should have been paid in vouchers. But they got cash.

Kevin Russell Jun 28

As a lawyer, how is this theft remedied? What laws or regulations have to change?

Class action lawyers steal most of the settlements reached.

Karl Auerbach Jun 29

@kevinrns As someone mentioned, one answer is to create more stringent and limiting caps on the ratio of lawyer fees to damages to victims in class action suits.

I am far from an expert in civil class action law, but I am getting a tingling that such limits may exist, but if they do, they are clearly too lax.

There is another abusive use of class-action, often used by the R-party. In this abuse, the lawyers working on behalf of the R-party find tailored/sympathetic named plaintiffs for a class so that they can get a law overturned. The R's have done this using friendly courts in the Texas panhandle area. This is how many of the worst cases of the last couple of years have reached SCOTUS.

Todd Knarr Jun 28

@karlauerbach Thought: law that in any class action suit the attorneys may claim no more than 20% in fees, and that costs for things like expert witnesses must be approved by the judge as being reasonable based on similar costs in non-class-action suits.

Morally Ambiguous Wulfric Jun 28

@karlauerbach Makes you wonder if you could file class action lawsuit against the predatory firms on behalf of everyone taken in by their exploitative and deceptive practices.

Orrock LXXXVI XLVII Jun 28

@karlauerbach was it the. health insurance thing? i got one too

Karl Auerbach Jun 29

@orrickle Yes, it was some sort of health insurance thing. And they wanted the dates and policy numbers and all kinds of information that I no longer have.

Yet, they found me, so they have access to the information. You would think for $75,000,000 that the lawyers could run the records through a computer and cull out the names of those who should bet part of the judgement.

Orrock LXXXVI XLVII Jun 29

@karlauerbach I totally get it. Same thing here. Lemme know if you want to sue.

Karl Auerbach Jun 29

@orrickle One twist of class actions is that those who don't want to be part of the class often have to explicitly opt-out in the early stages of the process.

Those who don't opt out then get stuck with "we concede our right to bring separate legal action".

In other words, you and I are class members, because we did not opt out, and we most likely, as a result, no longer have the power to bring separate actions.

That's rather a bummer, and it makes sense, but only if there is a real and serious up-front notice to all of those who are going to be swept into the class. But in real life most of us are buried under so many junk and scam emails, texts, and phone calls that the concept of "notice" ain't what it was in the 1980s and the law is far behind in evolving to adapt to that change.

@karlauerbach I got a check for $0.03 once which was fun. Also got a bit over $8K once so it's kind of like a lottery I guess?