I dare you to read THIS article from Texas Lawyer/law.com without despairing for the American legal system, or at least its class action segment. (“Intervenors Put Brakes on Settlement With Automaker,” Mary Alice Robbins, 09-11-2003) I’m getting a headache just thinking about summarizing the terms of the settlement (coupons for Hyundai owners who were fooled by exaggerated horsepower claims), the fees for the settling lawyers ($2 million), the forum-shopping, the complaints of the 29 intervenor law firms (who wouldn’t share in the fees), etc., etc., etc. You’re going to have to read the detailed article for yourselves, whiney, self-serving lawyer quotes and all. I’m just glad I’m not a judge having to deal with coupon-centered class action settlements; and, especially glad not to be the law clerk.
As a tease, however, I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes from the Texas Lawyer article:
“[Hyndai’s attorney, Brian] Anderson says there is ‘absolutely nothing unusual, untoward, nefarious or sneaky’ about limiting negotiations to the counsel for one class action. . . . We were not about to convene a convention or an open house of every lawyer in the country who had filed one of these suits.'”
“The intervenors alleged in a memorandum to Sanderson that Hyundai chose to settle with Bundick because he was willing to negotiate without conducting formal discovery. ‘In fact, Bundick and his counsel conducted no formal discovery, took no depositions and made no document requests before settling the claims of 1.3 million injured class members for coupons — and a $2 million fee,” the intervenors alleged in the memorandum.'”