Legal News

Coupons in lieu of cash no victory for consumers

By Richard Binder

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge David De Alba authorized the settlement of a class action that lawyers argued could be worth as much as $500 million to people who owned Ford Explorers during the 1990s.  It was a complex case that clogged the Sacramento County Superior Court's overburdened calendar for more than seven years.

De Alba awarded the lawyers $25 million in fees and expenses after presiding over a 50-day trial without a jury in 2007. But nearly all of the 1 million consumers covered by the class action lawsuit filed in their name got only discount coupons toward new Ford purchases. Few used them.

The practice of settling class action lawsuits by doling out discount coupons rather than cash has come under fire from tort reform activists and others who complain that such lawsuits mainly benefit the lawyers -- and even the companies being sued -- at the expense of their clients.

Full story here.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 03, 2009 (boomark / email).