Rhett Butler primitive ripped off by attorneys

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4816744

Oh my.

rhett o rick  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-12-09 08:20 PM
Original message

A new rip-off game. The class action suit.

Anyone else upset by this new rip-off? A group of lawyers find an irregularity to go after a major corporation and sue on behalf of a "class". The results many times are large monetary payoffs for the lawyers and ridiculous payoffs for the injured.

For example, a number of years ago I got a letter detailing how Hewlett-Packard apparently ripped me off on the price of the monitor I bought. Some lawyers sued on my, and a million others, behalf as a class action suit. We won the suit. The award against Hewlett-Packard was many millions. My share was a coupon for $15 off my next monitor purchase. The lawyers portion was millions of dollars cash. The case was settled out of court.

The company essentially gave the lawyers millions and the "victims" coupons. I have been getting these every now and then. In each case, my share is not worth the trouble, but the lawyers' share are in the millions. Can you spell R-I-P-O-F-F.

Oh my.  One wishes some primitives would learn how to paragraphize.

Paragraphs are handy, good things to have.

eyesroll  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-12-09 08:23 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. You have the right to exclude yourself from the class and sue separately.

janx  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-12-09 08:24 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
3. But what if he doesn't want to sue at all?

John Q. Citizen  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-12-09 08:31 PM
Response to Reply #3

7. He doesn't have to accept the settlement. He can throw away the letter. He doesn't understand and wants to attempt to make this out as a case of mean ol lawyers.

It's not like that though.

He is either laboring under a misconception or he doesn't like that people can sue corporations and can usually only afford to do so as a class.

rhett o rick  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-12-09 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #7
 
30. Wow are you off base. Trying to make me out to be anti-lawyer. I never said one word against lawyers

Someone is kinda sensitive. This is about a scam. Get it. An organization of lawyers acting completely within the law, find something that a big pockets corporation does wrong. They file a lawsuit on behalf of millions of victims. Of course the victims can opt out. Don't matter to the suit. The lawyers go to the corporation and point out where the corporation broke the rules. The corporations recognizes that the lawyers have them dead to rights. So the corporation make a deal to keep it out of court.

And the deal is that the lawyers get 30-40% of the total settlement IN CASH while the so-called victims get literally nothing, maybe a coupon or a few dollars. Just for grins lets say that the lawyers catch the corporation screwing the public to the tune of 100,000,000 dollars. The lawyers make a deal with the grateful corporation for only 25,000,000 dollars settlement. The lawyers get maybe 10,000,000 CASH while the so-called victims get a coupon for a few dollars off a new monitor.

Most victims won't bother and their collective 15,000,000 dollars is never collected. Corporation having only to pay 10,000,000 is happy, the lawyers getting 10,000,000 for not much work are happy and the consumers end up footing the bill.

I receive one of these scams about once a year.

Oh my.  One wishes some primitives would learn how to paragraphize.

Paragraphs are handy, good things to have.

Art_from_Ark (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan-13-09 12:09 AM
Response to Reply #30
 
49. That reminds me of the time I was "involved" in a class action suit

It involved some mutual fund that I owned (the only one that ever made me any money). I received a notice from some New York law firm informing me that they had won a suit against the mutual fund company and that I, as a member of the class, would be entitled to receive a coupon exempting me from the commission fees of the next mutual fund I purchased from the company.

The thing is, I had no idea this was going on. What's more, the fund I had did not have a commission fee. And the coupon never came.

rhett o rick  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-13-09 12:48 AM
Response to Reply #49
 
54. I get about one of these a year. I never get any settlement to speak of but the companies are paying the law firm that supposedly represents me tens of millions of dollars.

annabanana  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-12-09 08:24 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. It's not "class action suits" that are to blame..

It's the payouts. Class action suits are the only way to make corporations pay attention when they make faulty and dangerous products. Individual victims can be counter sued into penury or bought off for insignificant funds leaving the corporation whole and "admitting no wrong" in the case.. They can't do that when real money is involved.

I will take that coupon and some satisfaction that the corp won't do it to anyone else.

DJ13  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-12-09 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
9. It's the payouts. 

I agree, but the answer isnt to accept the staus quo, the answer is to reform the system so the lawyers cant get the majority of the settlement.

A statutory limit of no more than 15% to 20% of the settlement should be sufficient to insure that theres no risk that plaintiffs wont be able to obtain legal representation.

Some of these class action suits see lawyers billing for over 50% of the settlement, which is beyond reason.

liberalhistorian  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-13-09 12:22 AM
Response to Reply #9
 
50. Beyond reason? Really? Do you have any idea at all how much work goes into even the smallest legal matter, let alone complicated class action matters? I don't think so. I've been in the legal field for nearly fifteen years and know firsthand that most people have no clue how much work is involved in legal cases. For complicated ones such as class action suits, you're talking often thousands of hours of work by a multitude of lawyers, paralegals, researchers, support staff, etc. That deserves some major compensation.

lonestarnot  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-12-09 08:41 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. LOL. Cupins. 

It's not funny, and sucks ass.

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM franksolich

LONESTARNUT/HUNGER WATCH TO BEGIN JANUARY 20, 2009

END OF ANNOUNCEMENT

gratuitous  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-12-09 11:09 PM
Response to Original message
 
38. So, where were you "ripped off"?

Hewlett-Packard sold you a lousy monitor. They knew it was lousy. If you got one of the lemons, they'd basically say "Up yours" and leave you to fend for yourself against the magic of the market place. You were out the price of a monitor, which is not ordinarily a sum worth suing for (this is why smaller monetary damage claim cases have a separate provision for attorney's fees). Of course, HP didn't just sell you a bad monitor, they sold millions of them to individuals all over the country. They can bet that some vanishingly small percentage of consumers will actually go to all the trouble of contacting an attorney, getting a demand letter written (as required by the statute that will authorize attorney's fees), and then they'll settle up with those few disgruntled consumers. A miniscule payout for a massive wrong perpetrated on the public.

So, you were included in the class of people identified as being wronged by HP. Probably by the time you received notice of the class action, you no longer had the paperwork to bring a claim on your own, had already brought your claim, didn't have a claim because your monitor happened to work fine, or weren't even aware that you had a legal remedy. In none of these circumstances are you ripped off by anyone except HP. But if you were truly feeling victimized, you could have opted out by returning a postage paid card. Now, it would have "cost" you the effort to make an "x" in a little box and dropped the card in the mail.

Whoa, I just thought about that. Holy smokes! Making an "x" and mailing a card! Those bastards. It's a wonder you can even get up in the morning. Sir, I salute your awesome courage and perseverance in the face of unimaginable hardship!

In comes the silly primitive:

SoCalDem  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-12-09 11:53 PM
Response to Original message
 
48. Class actions are not new.. We have even gotten money from class actions suits

We once for a check from State farm Insurance for 98 CENTS..and another time, some appliance company sent us 2 $5.00 off coupons for anything in their product line

I dunno.

[USA4ME]

When one has problems even admitting that the reason lawyers file class action lawsuits is to rake in the cash, that they really could care less about the consumer, then one has some major issues.

But, it's one of their big lobbies, so they can't critize them.  Now, if lawyers were one of the Republicans biggest lobbies, then it'd be a change of tune and open season.

.

[JohnnyReb]

And they have to ask why companies move off shore.

Their only gripe appears to be....they didn't get a big share of the settlement.

[Zeus]

Something is definitely wrong though when Litigation & steps taken to prevent/diminish litigation add about 30% to our cost of living.

Think about it,what would a 30% increase in your disposable income do for you.

Granted you can't eliminate litigation altogether but it could be stepped back considerably.

The dummies was on to something without realizing it. The majority of Class action suits are nothing but Nuisance suits,legal shakedowns.

[JohnnyReb]

Something is definitely wrong though when Litigation & steps taken to prevent/diminish litigation add about 30% to our cost of living.

Think about it,what would a 30% increase in your disposable income do for you.

Granted you can't eliminate litigation altogether but it could be stepped back considerably.

The dummies was on to something without realizing it. The majority of Class action suits are nothing but Nuisance suits,legal shakedowns.

I agree....but the DUmmies really want to keep their options open hoping to someday hit the jackpot with their own lawsuit.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It is pretty much a money machine for a particularly slimy bunch of attorneys, the OP is actually right about that.  There is a very limited amount of market utility in the practice, in that it keeps companies from screwing customers in various illegal but nickel-and-dime ways the customers could never realistically do anything about as individuals, but courts have reined in the practice quite a bit since it's heyday during the Clinton years.