Class Action Lawsuit - got paid!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

One of the minor annoyances of the modern age is the occassional small print postcard in the mail informing one that they are eligible to be included in a class action lawsuit. Trying to read what is in dispute often seems like some cranky-pants read the fine print on their cell phone contract and found an “AHA!” and is going to MAKE THEM PAY! I file it under, OK, whatever. I don’t begrudge them, we need these folks fighting the good fight, yah? I’ll usually try to register as a class member, if needed, and if it’s not too onerous. (Some seem to want you to replicate 10 years worth of details - yeah, no thanks, keep your $.37 payout.)

Anywho, one came through a few years ago that was a little closer to home and not so esoteric. There was a gas leak about 2 miles away. It was in all of the news. And the utility company was being sued. So, when it came through that I was eligible because of where I was residing at the time, yeah, sure, why not, let’s see what they come up with.

Time marched on, all the machinations ground away, and they reached a final settlement, which included payments to class members. OK, after lawyers fees, maybe I’ll get a check for $20 or so.

Well, the check came and YOWZA! AOOOGA! Honey, come look! Are you seeing what I’m seeing?

I’m really not meaning to brag, but it was over $1,000.00! That was totally unexpected!

Has anyone else had a seemingly random class action payout that was sizable?

"Biddle v. The Walt Disney Company - Reminder Notice of Class Action Settlement"
2

I’ve been part of five different class actions against companies that sent junk faxes. The amounts have all been over $100 but under $300.

3

ME!
I got $7.61 from the “Optical Disk Dive Settlement” today.
I’m rich. I’m Socially Secure!

4

$1000 for a nearby gas leak? That seems oddly high. We had a big gas leak here not that long ago. Big enough that I could smell gas from inside my car while I was driving home. Turns out they had an “over pressurization event” and all the relief valves on everyone’s meters were purging gas for a while. They sent out techs with sniffers to check every single meter in the area (I’d WAG it was 5 or 10 mile radius) over the next few days.
I didn’t get anything for that.

Anyway. Many many years ago, I got one of those class action lawsuit letters. It was the first time I had seen one and multiple people told me to just toss it, saying I was going to spend all that time filling it out only to get a few dollars.
It wasn’t a few dollars, it was around $6,000.
IIRC, it was some type of Visa/MC antitrust thing.

I’m currently waiting for another Visa/MC antitrust thing to play out in court, I’d be surprised if this paid out as well, but we’ll see.
I’m also in a class action suit called “Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation” but I’m guessing this one is going to end up being, at most, a few hundred bucks, but probably less than a hundred.

I’ll join (or not opt out of) most of them they I don’t have to do anything for. If I’m going to have to spend any real time digging up old paperwork, I’ll typically move on.

Also, come to think of it, I got a a couple bucks a few days ago for an Optical Drive settlement. I don’t even remember signing up for that one (but I feel like I read about it here maybe).

5

Maybe they settled for $100,000 based on 10,000 people in the vicinity each suffering $10 worth of harm, but only 100 people bothered signing up because everyone else figured it wasn’t worth it for $10.

I don’t know how it works, if few people sign up is the pot just divided between them? Or do they just get the per person amount and the rest goes to some noble cause?

6

Fortunate that your system had regulators. Overpressurization is one of the most potentially catastrophic incidents a gas utility can have. See Merrimack, MA 2018. Without regulators, buildings go boom. Someone screwed up badly.

7

Interesting, I got $15.23.

8

Some part of our Massachusetts Hospital system screwed up something with their electronic record-keeping, I’m not even sure what it was. But three of our family were in that system, so earlier this year I sent out the postcards, and a while later we each got $100.

9

I got $26.65 for this earlier this week.

Biggest I can remember receiving was a check for over $1000 for some AOL class action suit in the early 2000s.

10

Just out of interest, do you remember how much the law firm collected in fees?

I’m in a class action suit now (my first) and just the other day got an email from the law firm that they are “increasing their fees. But don’t worry, because our fees will never exceed the awarded amount.”

Hmmm, they could take it all. It’s not off the table.

11

The judge should step in before that happens. The initial thing you got in the mail (and the website for the suit) should tell you the maximum amount the lawyers can/will take. I wonder if you can opt-out if they decide to take more than that.

Remember, it’s in the business’ best interest that the members get as much money as possible (at least out of the agreed upon settlement). If members don’t receive enough they may opt out and remaining in the suit means you can’t sue them on your own (for the same thing). They’d much rather you got a hundred dollars rather than offering you $5 and you deciding you can do better suing them on your own.

12

Thank you I will check on that.

13

I filled in one of those cards a few months ago related to a fine-print something-or-other about the pricing of my health insurance plan. I haven’t heard anything back, but I assume these things take a long time to work through the system.

Does anyone know if they get back to you if there is no payout?

14

Just received $100 couple of weeks ago for that. They accidently had patients personal data in web pages. Not on the screen but still readable. I saw doctors at Dana Farber and BIDMC during that period, the rest of my family had not. Ironically I had a lot to do with the development of that software in the past but had never been an employee of the plaintiff companies.

15

I have absolutely no idea, I never even remembered signing up for it. I just got a check from them one day out of the blue and then a tax letter when it came to tax time. That’s the only correspondence I had about it.

This was sometime between 2001-2004.

16

We represented a class that was cheated by their health insurance company (taking more for subrogation than entitled from third party settlements). We had about 600 clients and they each got between $500 and $10,000 checks they were not expecting, just before Christmas. The court scrutinized our fees and costs, but we probably recovered 1/3 to 40% of the gross. We certainly earned it, the insurance company fought like crazy for years in state and federal courts.

17

I think there is a reasonable distinction between what you describe, and the ones that seem to be “fling something against the wall and see if it sticks” where you are in the class if you ever drove a car, or owned a pair of shoes.

18

Ah, so that’s what it was, yikes.

19

Agreed, some seem (at least from a distance) to be a bit crazy. On the other hand, it’s really the only way to go after companies that screw 100,000 people out of $0.50 each. The lawyers who do that know that your 25 cent coupon won’t make a difference, but collectively they’re stopping misconduct (in theory).

20

Yeah, I certainly don’t begrudge them, and as I said, we need these folks fighting the good fight. It’s just that, like with so many things in life, the process seems to have…drifted. At one time I was keeping track of all the postcards I received informing me I was part of a class. I had about 10 collected, and none of them were meaningful to me. So, my cable company was charging an inappropriate fee? NO, REALLY??? Huh, imagine that.