Litigation

Kabateck Brown Kellner discovers the flaw of cy pres

By Ted Frank

Last March, two attorneys from the Kabateck Brown Kellner firm published an op ed in the Los Angeles Daily Journal attacking my litigation against impermissible cy pres awards as part of a "corporate" campaign. Never mind that the Center for Class Action Fairness has never taken a dollar of for-profit corporate money. And never mind that my position on cy pres pretty much mirrors that of the American Law Institute. And never mind that Kabateck regularly breaches its fiduciary duty to its clients by regularly negotiating for class money to go to its preferred charities in the first instance rather than as a last resort. We've knocked out one crappy Kabateck cy pres settlement this year that attempted to give the slush fund for charity to the judge if he'd sign off on a settlement that ripped off the class, and we'll knock out a few more in the next twelve months when judges rule on pending cases.

What amuses me today is that same op ed proudly beat its chest: "Another great example of the laudable use of the cy pres mechanism was in the recent Armenian Genocide Insurance Settlements," a class-action shakedown for the benefit of lawyers. Now, the National Law Journal is reporting, there are allegations that settlement funds from that very same case were fraudulently funneled to sham charities. Not the first time. But, of course, the only possible reason to oppose cy pres is to carry water for corporations, right?

(The Center for Class Action Fairness is not affiliated with the Manhattan Institute.)

Full post as published by Point of Law on March 17, 2011 (boomark / email).