I just received notice of my settlement from class action lawsuit against Classmates.com

[apples and oranges]

I am now... WAIT FOR IT...

$2.00 richer!!!

I just googled to see what this is all about:

The case started after a San Diego man who was registered with Classmates.com (but with limited access to the site because he was not paying a fee) received an e-mail telling him old classmates were trying to contact him. Of course, finding out who these old classmates were, and why they wanted to contact him, would cost money…specifically, he would have to upgrade to a “Gold Membership.”

And he did. That’s when he found out there wasn’t anybody trying to reach him through the website. Classmates.com had just flat lied about it to get him to fork over the membership fee…for a membership he wasn’t going to buy otherwise.

The fellow in San Diego thought that was wrong. And because Classmates.com made the same fraudulent pitch to millions of other people, and more than three million of them plunged for the membership fee, his false advertising claim grew into a class action.

http://www.protectconsumerjustice.org/how-the-classmates-com-settlement-is-more-than-a-2-coupon.html

[newscott]

1. A LOT of websites do this. Especially dating ones.

[blueworld]

2. Are you sure it's not just $2.00 off a "Gold Membership"? n/t

[jberryhill]

3. I tried to tell him that on Classmates, but the cheap bastard won't sign up /nt

[Scurrilous]

4. LOL

:thumbsup:

[spanone]

5. ah, retirement comes early!

for the attorneys perhaps..

[DimplesinMI]

6. Do spend that all

In one place........:)

[democraticinsurgent]

7. Yeah, me too.

I think I got $3.00 but I'm pretty sure it was a discount off future purchases.

Classmates is close to worthless. They could have been Facebook if they'd been willing to give their memberships away, but the cost keeps the critical mass down to nil.

Oh yeah. I also got a check for 82 cents from the Expedia Class Action Settlement.

Whoop.

[SoCalDem]

8. We once got a settlement check from a suit against State Farm..for 98 cents

:)

[gratuitous]

9. Typically, this is what a class action lawsuit is about

I received a similar settlement for a case against Expedia. A class action lawsuit isn't going to make the claimants rich (or really even the attorneys who bring the action, unless you think $50,000 for three or four years' worth of arcane work is lucrative), because the amount in controversy per claimant is very low. A person or entity can make quite a lucrative profit ripping off four or five million people for ten bucks each, but it's not worth it for each of those persons to bring an individual action, which is why a class action is used to try to bring these bad actors to some semblance of justice.

The alternative is to let entities like Classmates.com just get away with it, and I for one don't think that's acceptable. Cash your check.

[wtmusic]

10. If an attorney only makes $50K on $50M in damages, he/she sucks.

Most CA attorneys are paid very, very well for what amounts to law enforcement.

[gratuitous]

12. I've worked a couple of class action cases as a legal assistant/secretary

And the fees are usually a combination of contingency (percentage) and time worked. The attorney has to petition the court for approval of the fee, and the other side will often invest a lot more energy in contesting the fee than it ever did in contesting the allegations. Amortized over the course of litigation from the day the first claimant walks through the door until settlement or verdict, the fee might work out to a couple thousand dollars a month, which isn't very much, all things considered, particularly the diceyness of prevailing at all.

Class action lawsuits are also an arcane area of law. Rules vary by state, but usually class action cases have their own specific set of rules of procedure requiring all kinds of notifications and publication so that the maximum number of claimants can be notified of their eligibility to participate. This also involves plowing through the records of the offending company to identify as best as possible who may have been cheated, and that kind of research is very tedious. So much so that attorneys billing $250 an hour will delegate the task to paralegals or assistants who bill a third that amount. This also works to raise the costs and reduce the fee that will be awarded.

[unapatriciated]

11. great explanation - thanks

[AnnInLa]

13. Cool!

With that and a smile, you can buy a cup of coffee. I was part of a class action lawsuit against Edward Jones Brokers. I got a voucher for $6.70 per quarter for 3 quarters...to be applied to fees, IF I still was a client...which I wasn't.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. I've gotten those "XXXX is trying to reach you". I'd feel like a chump if I paid a fee and

no one was trying to reach me.

[pipi_k]

15. Wheeee!!!! We're both rich!!!!

I got the same email.

I'm gonna run out and buy that $1,000,000 custom-built motorhome I've been pining away for...

:7