The ones I’ve been a part of (thrown into) typically result in a 50-cent coupon towards my next purchase with the company or some silly BS like that. Has there ever been a case where class members actually received meaningful recompense?
The relatively recent class action suit against merchant services (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) produced HUGE benefits to everyone who accepts credit cards. I only got $19.00* back as a refund, but that wasn’t the real benefit. The benefits are mandated changes to how service agreements are worded, allowing things like a surcharge for people who use cards, the ability to set minimum prices for card purchases, etc. (A lot of these things have been done my sellers for a long time, even though they’ve typically been against the terms of their merchant service agreement.)
*Of course, my $19 was based on pretty low processing amounts of about $10,000 in sales per year. There are vendors who do that in a day.
If you’re looking for high dollar amounts, you’re not going to see that from large consumer class actions over small issues. Look for very expensive products or significant damages to property and/or health.
The only concrete example I can think of off the top of my head was the suit against PG&E that the Erin Brockovich movie was based on, which yielded millions per claimant. (Wikipedia).
As a factory worker my dad has been part of a lot of asbestos lawsuits. He hasn’t made millions or probably not 6 figures, but has gotten thousands of dollars over the past 20 years or so (he also has mesothelioma so I do not recommend this course of action.)
What do you consider “meaningful”? In most class action suits the class would get nothing if the class representative didn’t file suit.
My father was part of one of these lawsuits against Continental can Company - and people did get six figure payouts
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/11/business/company-news-continental-can-loses-pension-case.html
I got something like $300 from an international fees credit card class action a few years ago.
ETA: It was $330 in December of 2011, looking through an old thread on this board.
I know a person who got about $17,000 in a class action lawsuit against the makers of an implanted cardiac defibrillator that had to be surgically removed and replaced.
My guess would be that there have been plenty that you don’t hear about where the amount to be distributed in large and the size of the class is relatively small. The people of Hinkley, CA as was shown in the movie “Erin Brochovitch” got decent payouts from PG&E, but of course they had to have suffered brutal disease and long term illnesses as a result.
Perhaps the better question is: Has a class action lawsuit benefitted the class to a degree that made up for the costs associated with having the conditions that made them a part of that class to begin with…
In other words, getting a $100,000 payout may seem like a lot, but it doesn’t mean much if you get it on your deathbed after spending $500,000 treating the cancer received from your job making asbestos insulation materials for 25+ years at your previous job.
If the answer was “yes” then you would have essentially identified a miscarriage of justice. The general principle is that lawsuits are meant to redress damages and make the injured party whole. Translating damage to dollars can be pretty vague when pain & suffering, and quality of life are measured so there is some leeway in the numbers… Still, if someone came out of court saying “For that much money, they can poison me all they want!” then it would imply that the monetary compensation was set too high.
I’ve represented plaintiffs in two class actions. Both resulted in settlements I’m sure the class members would consider significant. One involved about 500 members getting checks out of the blue for between $500 and $10,000. The other was a cancer insurance case where the class members got much more. These are relatively small class sizes, unlike those against a phone company or credit card company. I have seen class action settlements that truly did little good except make a lot of money for some lawyers (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
No lawsuit can do that. The truly huge payouts go to people who have truly horribly injuries. Would you sell your arm for $5 million? I wouldn’t.
The point of class actions is (1) aggregating claims which would otherwise never see a courtroom because they’re too small to bother with (the sort that result in coupon settlements); and (2) saving plaintiffs the cost of proving a causal link over and over again (the sort that result in large individual payouts).
Being part of the class in the latter case is not ideal, but it beats the alternative: litigating the case alone and winning $3 million, of which $2 million is eaten by fees and litigation costs.
I got about $400 a few months ago because of the predatory manner in which my bank processed overdrafts.
But I do think that the OP is making a valid point: How meaningful is it when then only thing the victim gets is a $10 coupon to spend a the same predatory business? Granted that he would not get even that if not for the lawsuit, but is it really a punishment or deterrent?
I got about $104.00 from that Barnes & Noble ebook class action thing. I have to spend it at B & N though.
Yes, the $10 isn’t much of a punishment or deterrent, but if there are 10s of thousands of them, you can bet the settlement also included a sizable attorney fee component, which feels like a punishment to the defendant.
It would depend on if you consider a court basically saying “stop that **** now” meaningful. Many people would consider that the most important outcome.
Cobb EMC $100 million settlement of class-action suit OK’d by judge
Although the article mentions some very large payouts to governmental and nonprofit entities, individuals who have lived in Cobb County for a long time are getting significant amounts as well. My father got his check Saturday and it was for about $440. Not too shabby.
My husband got something in the realm of $50,000 for a Vioxx related heart attack. I don’t know the exact figure, as it was before we were together.
Didn’t go very far, as his cardiac output is so crappy that he can’t work. But it did (along with savings) get him through some lean unemployed years until he was able to get approved for Disability. It certainly wasn’t “worth it,” but he didn’t turn it down!
There have been some sizeable awards stemming from the subprime mortgage mess.
Roughly 34,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers received around $8,500 each earlier this year for being “steered” into subprime loans while white borrowers with similar credit profiles got prime loans.
This is probably one of the larger class-action settlements that didn’t involve physical maiming or terminal illness.
Around fifteen years ago, I was processing asbestos injury claim settlements. For every non-smoker who got $100,000* for mesothelioma, there were dozens of people who got $1000, a pat on the head and don’t bother us anymore for lung disease that may be as much from a lifetime of smoking as any alleged asbestos exposure.
- For this settlement class, there was a formula that took into account the person’s age, type of asbestos, tobacco use, years of asbestos-related employment, etc. with a fair bit of negotiating prowess. One of the highest settlements I saw was for a housewife who developed mesothelioma due to the asbestos fibers in the laundry.
But isn’t that about a1/3 of what he should have gotten? If i read the article right, the company still took 2/3 of the member’s money.
I have a fax machine at work. I have been a part of 4 class action lawsuits now against companies that sent junk faxes. Each took less than a minute of my time. For each, my portion of the settlement was between one and two hundred dollars.