So this guy who worked for Simons, the company that made the Monopoly games for McDonalds, defrauds McDonalds by giving some the game pieces to his friends. Now a lawyer from Illinois wants to turn the knife in the wound by suing McDonalds for “ripping off” their customers. He wants a class action lawsuit, that’s easy enough since all he needs are some people who’ve eaten at McDonalds.
So what’s to stop my friend Joe Blow the lawyer from doing the same here, or a thousand lawyers from everywhere all doing the same thing? Can only one class action lawsuit be filed against McDonalds and he was just the first one to think of it? And can everyone else now join the lawsuit each purporting to represent a bunch of people who’ve eaten at McD’s?
I think you would have a very hard time getting a judgement against McDonalds.
This says that “no employees of McDonald’s were involved in the scam” and that “McDonald’s has offered big prizes - $1 million in cash, diamonds or gold, cars and vacations - to Monopoly game winners”.
So, unless new info comes out that someone in the McDonalds company was involved, McDonalds is the victim here.
IIRC, there can be different plaintiff’s counsels involved in a class action lawsuit, but the lawyer or firm which signs up the larfest number of people is the “lead counsel” in the suit and gets to argue in court.
I base this on the fact that I work for a newswire, and whenever there is a shareholder lawsuit filed against a corporation, we’ll see press releases from several law firms notifying shareholders of their availability for representation. It used to be the case that they would run the same release on a weekly basis, attempting to sign up more members of the class than the next guy so they could be named lead counsel, until we instituted a “no repeats” policy.
I do think that there can be only one class action suit (as long as all parties claiming injury or damages are in the same “class” as determined by the judge–if they are not, separate suits may be allowed). All the firms and lawyers representing class members let their case be argued by the lead counsel.
The news report I heard said the class action lawsuit would try to lay blame on McDonalds because, according to the suit, customers would have been more inclined to purchase regular sized fries instead of large sized fries. In order to get game pieces, I guess a customer has to order large sized fries. Never mind the fact that McDonalds will be offering those lost cash prizes in the future, and aided in the arrest of a fraud scheme.
With any luck, the customers involved in the class action will receive their 2 cents, while the lawyer pockets the rest. Personally, I only hope the suit tarnishes the lawyer’s reputation among his peers. Frivolity at its finest.