Former Yahoo Advertisers Objecting To Class Action Settlement After Realizing They Get Nothing

from the but-the-lawyers... dept

Wed, Dec 16th 2009 5:59pm — Mike Masnick

We've discussed in the past how the class action lawsuit process if often abused mercilessly. While the concept of a class action lawsuit can make a lot of sense, as you look at the details of many of the lawsuits, they do little to nothing to benefit the "class," but plenty to make the lawyers involved quite wealthy. Eric Turkewitz, a personal injury lawyer who actually does tend to like class action lawsuits, finds himself on the other end of one such class action lawsuit -- involving charges of click fraud being allowed by Yahoo! -- and is now objecting the settlement which pays the lawyers a ton, but offers absolutely nothing to many former Yahoo advertisers, like Turkewitz. In looking over the details of the settlement, he realized that the only companies that would be getting paid (and by getting "paid" it meant $20) were companies no longer in business (which, he notes, also means they're not likely to file). Once again, we're seeing a "class action settlement" where the lawyers all make out, but the "class" seems to get shafted.

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Filed Under: class action, click fraud

8 Comments

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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 6:02pm

Whaaaaa?
You mean bringing lawyers into it doesn't result in a situation where anybody but the lawyers are happy?

I'm shocked, *shocked!*
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hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, 16 Dec 2009 @ 6:08pm

and when the revolution comes
the lawyers were the first to go.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 6:28pm

Lawyers, can't live with them. Can't live without them.
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- senshikaze (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 7:08pm
  
  Re:
  nope, just pretty much can't live with them.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 6:34pm

It is one of the reasons that all settlements like this should be "amount plus lawyer fees", so that the initial amount is not diluted.
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- BearGriz72 (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 9:34pm
  
  Re:
  The problem with that is it without some sort of reasonable restriction on the amount of the lawyers’ fees (and good luck figuring that out cause I have now idea how to do it) it would end up in the same place. With the lawyers’ fees being the majority of the money, it would just be tacked on top. (i.e. Instead of a hypothetical 1 million dollar settlement – 750k lawyers’ fees you would get the 1 million dollar settlement with 3 million lawyers’ fees) I fail to see how that would help the situation.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 7:10pm

Should be opt-out
I think membership in class action lawsuits should be opt-in, not opt-out and those not opting-in should then be free to pursue other remedies. That alone would go a long way towards reducing the abuse.
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roxanneadams (profile), 17 Dec 2009 @ 8:31am

You wouldn't believe how many checks show up in my mailbox every year from questionable class-action lawsuit settlements. One was for .79 cents. Which means the lawyers were paid millions of dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit on my behalf, even though I didn't believe I was harmed by whatever it was the bad evil corporate giant did.

Yesterday there was a $10 check in my mailbox from a lawsuit settlement over the price-fixing of computer memory chips. I paid $60 eight years ago for memory to upgrade my Thinkpad from a company named Crucial, and they threw in free Fedex next-day shipping. The computer is now in the bottom of a landfill, long forgotten (relax, you global warming freaks, I donated the Thinkpad to a charity that recycles computers.) I was not harmed in any way by Crucial, yet they were obligated by some bogus class-action lawsuit to reimburse me $10 for the purchase of merchandise that worked as advertised. If it wasn't for the lawsuit, I would have forgotten all about it.

I'm still waiting on my IPOD settlement. Boo-hoo, the screen was easily scratched, so I'm deserving of my share of the class-action settlement pie. $9.00 and some change I'm waiting for.
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