Class action lawsuits are more insulting than anything.
"We got busted illegally taking millions of dollars from our customers. Here's your $12.48 in compensation."
Gee, thanks. That makes it all better. 🙄
FRCP Rule 23 really needs to be reformed. The reality is there likely shouldn't be a certified class in may of these cases, if the rule or the case law were followed. Instead, courts are approving dubious settlement classes, with limited resources to review anything, and consumers are getting minimal recovery.
That said, most of the time, the damages any individual consumer experiences is relatively low. Like in the above settlement, baring actual identity theft, you likely would never be able to prove actual damages to get something more than nominal damages. So you'd likely only ever be entitled to $10 in damages if you sued.
What you should be entitled to, and what should be available but isn't, is penalties. I'd be interested to see if folks ever had a desire to expand qui tam (private parties suing on behalf of the government) to expand penalties payments out of these companies, rather than doing these BS class cases.
On top of that, class administrators are absolutely a problem: https://www.vitallaw.com/news/antitrust-news-class-action-administrators-and-banks-named-in-suit-alleging-secret-kickback-scheme-that-suppressed-settlement-payouts/ald01e2f28b76305245e097ac15f43a74e28f
The part I passionately despise is the manufactured-consent opt-out angle: You have to choose not to be a class member through fucking snail mail (at least per every administrator I’ve seen), and if you don’t take time out of your day to write and mail an enveloped letter, the court assumes you acquiesce to someone else representing your interests by default.
No rational person is gonna do that every time in exchange for the simple reward of maintaining their own right to action.
Legitimacy (or even a facade of it) isn’t something the American legal system seems to care about anymore. Everything else you mentioned is just a bukkakefest of jizz-flavored icing on the cake forced down the public’s throat.
Thank you!
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