Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Class Action Madness

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Class Action Madness

OK, I've done my Civ Pro course. It had a large class-action component. And yet I'm reading over an email from Verizon Wireless (my cell phone provider) telling me that I'm a member of a class that will now get a variety of coupons for a number of things I don't really need, that won't save me any/much money on overpriced or unneeded services, in compensation for acts that they are not admitting they did which I don't understand why I was injured by.

I tried reading the email they sent, honestly. Much as Verizon doesn't inspire passionate customer loyalty in me, I don't see how anything alleged in the email hurt me, certainly not to the value of the vouchers offered. Either I'm too dumb to be a law student, or the class action system is mad.

Posted by Anthony on January 31, 2004 1:14 PM | Permalink

Comments

I don't know that the class action system is mad; it is, however, designed to get lawyers who bring them a large contingency fee while providing a minimum of "relief" to the members of the class. I've been a member of the class in three class actions now, and I've yet to receive anything in the settlement that was worth the time and postage stamp invested in participating in the class action.

Posted by: Len Cleavelin | February 1, 2004 2:00 PM

In an effort to avoid working on my moot court assignment, I tried to diagram the last sentence of the first paragraph of this post. I failed. You are well on your way to being a damn fine lawyer.

Posted by: Julie | February 1, 2004 5:49 PM

Julie: I was only imitating the style of the email I received from Verizon. It is a pale simulation indeed.

Posted by: A. Rickey | February 1, 2004 6:07 PM

Tony, you are correct in your assumption that the class action system is, indeed, mad. The world would be much better off without Rule 23.

Posted by: Kara | February 4, 2004 12:54 AM

I, too, am a member of the Verizon class, and I think it's interesting that my free earpiece earned some law firm several million dollars. That said, I have had positive experiences as a member of a class. I bought a Toshiba laptop that apparently had some disk drive problem. I ended up receiving several hundred dollars in cash as well as a several hundred dollar gift certificate to use on Toshiba products.

Posted by: Dave | February 4, 2004 10:50 AM

I worked for a consulting firm that audited telephone bills. The owner had a vendetta against Verizon and started a class action suit. It concerned business customers with under 5 lines NOT getting a $1.01 credit for each line. This was recently settled and each customer will get a coupon for $1.65 for each line. The lawyers of course will make a killing. What was the point of filing such a claim?

Posted by: John Fessler | September 26, 2005 2:56 PM

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