Tort Reform - Why I want something done to attorneys

[Egalitariat]

I've gotten offers for "coupon settlements" in the past from Class Action suits with Jiffy Lube and Blockbuster. Everyone in the class got a coupon - for a half priced oil change or a free video. No shit; I'm not kidding. The attorneys in each case got millions of dollars in CASH. Millions of dollars in COUPONS? No. They got CASH.

Attorneys who sell out their class for coupons should receive coupons as compensation. That's the tort reform I want. If the injustice done was not worth more than coupons for the victims, then the action should never have been brought by the attorneys.

It's fine, to me, if the attorneys decide that coupons are good enough for their clients. But if each class member only gets $4.50 in coupons for a video, the attorney's $10 Million compensation should consist of 2.5 million coupons for "1 Free DVD Rental". And they should be non-transferrable -- the attorneys can't sell the coupons back to the company or anyone else.

The reason I'm so PISSED is that I just got my 3rd ever "coupon settlement" offer from a group of attorneys. Allstate is my auto insurance company, and apparently I have been seriously wronged by Allstate (according to "my" attorneys). What's the wrong? I don't know. What's the settlement offer? I get a free credit report. Wow! A free credit report! What a bargain!

What do the attorneys get? $8 MILLION DOLLARS!

$8M dollars worth of free credit reports? No. They get $8 MILLION in cold hard CASH. CASH!

I should have been an attorney. You put a big enough "wronged" group together, you can then sell them out with a BS settlement. And you, the attorney, gets CASH!!!

I'm writing the judge tomorrow asking him to throws these frauds out of his courtroom.

And, to add insult to injury, Allstate will now raise its rates (a fraction, admittedly) to recoup the $8 Million CASH in attorneys' fees, from all the dumbasses in the class who signoff and request a "free" credit report.

[adwon]

1. That was sort of addressed in the new class action law

Attorney's fees in a class-action where the plaintiffs receive coupons are now based on the value of coupons redeemed, not coupons issued.

[DU9598]

2. Then Opt out of the class

You can opt out of the class and hire your own private attorney at your own cost if you are really upset.

Why haven't you done so?

[Egalitariat]

3. I don't want my insurance rates to go up to pay the attorneys

for this BS suit. I want the judge to throw these bums out on the street.

I'll send a certified letter to the court tomorrow to that effect.

[DU9598]

4. I don't understand you

Are you just saying that people should not be able to seek justice in a court of law? If someone is harmed, then they should suck it up and take the loss to keep your insurance rates low? I guess I am not understanding your logic. If you don't want to recover, then don't sue. Nobody is forcing you to sue anyone, are they?

[Egalitariat]

12. My opting out of the class will do nothing. The whole thing

will go forward and the damage will be done.

My question is this, if "free credit reports" are so valuable, and the attorneys think this is a just reward for their clients, why don't they accept "free credit reports" as compensation for the time and expense they have spent on this "case".

[merh]

22. So, it is okay for the insurance company to "f" you, just not

the attorneys? If the actions prevent the insurance companies from screwing you, why are you pissed at them? :shrug:

You just seem to be pissed at the wrong entity.

[Hosnon]

23. Opting out will not do nothing. Yes the class action will go forward

but the judgment will not be binding on you.

Just opt out - and pay an attorney the hundreds of thousands in research to win your own trial.

[jdots]

5. Not long ago doctors & lawyers could not advertise

they could advertise thier names and trades,this worked very well .The system was about health and justice not hype and deception.

[tubbacheez]

6. Class action attorneys are a tiny minority of all attorneys.

I hate shoddy work, including shoddy legal work. Tort reform needs to be carefully considered. We want to solve a specific problem, and swinging a wide club would be counter-productive.








Also, if you think the class-members are getting a raw deal from the proposed settlement, you could join the class and say so. It'll take some campaigning, but if you really believe the offer is unjust, say so and see how many fellow class-members agree.


If you choose not to be part of the class, you retain all your rights to sue on this matter in the future. You just forego your coupon.

[democracyindanger]

7. Let me get this straight

You're pissed that you're getting free stuff you weren't even expecting, and that you didn't go to law school and pass the bar.

'Kay.

[Dookus]

8. lol

that about sums it up!

[Egalitariat]

10. First of all, nothing's free. The cost of these lawsuits is baked

into the premium that me and you pay for our car insurance.

Second, I don't want my costs to go up (even if it's only a quarter every six months) so that Allstate can pay $8MM to attorneys who negotiated a settlement that enriches them but does nothing for their class.

[democracyindanger]

13. The alternative is the companies continue doing bad things

without ever being held responsible in any way, so even if your premium doesn't go up, the entire class is going to suffer non-monetary costs that decrease the value of what you pay for. So instead of paying a little more for a little better--or even at least what you expect, you'll be paying the same for worse.

[JerseygirlCT]

14. You might be very surprised at the cost

of NOT having these lawsuits as well. Have you considered that?

If you think the suit is frivolous and unjustified, then you ought to opt out, ethically speaking. If you think the settlement is insubstantial, then you can likewise opt out and attempt your own suit.

Those lawyers you're sneering at work hard representing clients. Unlike you, they've actually spent time working for the resolution of the suit.

Are there money-grubbing, greedy, overpaid lawyers out there? You betcha. But most are not. And painting them all with your broad brush only makes you sound irrational.

[Egalitariat]

16. I didn't paint anyone with any brush. All I said is that if

the attorneys think coupons are good enough for their clients, then coupons ought to be good enough for the attorneys.

I don't know why everyone is assuming I have something against attorneys. I don't.

I do, however, have something against attorneys who do nothing for their clients and still get a shitload of money.

Why are class action lawsuits "opt-out" where the whole world assumes you were wronged, and the attorneys get paid as if you were wronged, even if you were not.

If you haven't been wronged, like me, you simply throw the BS letter away. And the attorneys get paid. At least 99% of people (who haven't been wronged) do this I would bet.

On the other hand, if they made you "opt-in" I guarantee that anyone who had really been wronged would "opt-in" and I also guarantee that attorneys would negotiate a settlement that made it worth your while to opt in.

As it stands now, the attorneys get paid regardless of the settlement, and their clients get nothing.

[BrendaStarr]

9. YOu need to document these facts

and if you are the only one making them, then you should sign an affidavit.

Your word is not Biblical.

Many lies get passed on the Internet.

I got forms from Microsoft CA settlements.

I suppose I could have gotten up to $100 dollars or so, but I was too lazy to fill them out.


Still they were offered.

I don't mind that attorneys got some money over the thing.

If you remember the Republicans have taken away most controls on business.

Consumers were supposed to fend for themselves, but the CA suits were how we did it.

Now those are severely hampered.

And you wonder why gasoline prices are stratopheric?

The US Senate found in 2002 that gasoline prices are being manipulated by the refiners which are also mostly the big Oil companies.

But then the Republicans took control of the Senate.

[Egalitariat]

11. $100 or so is real money. Assuming its cash

I have no problem with attorneys who create a real value for their class. $100 cash is a real value. A free credit report is not. Everybody is allowed to get a free credit report once a year.

As for documentation, the attorneys included the link, www.creditreportsettlement.com, in their BS materials. Do you want anything else?

[WilliamPitt]

15. Everyone hates lawyers

until they need one.

Speaking of which, your post says you want something done "to" lawyers, instead of something done "about" lawyers.

Allow that kind of thinking to go unchecked, and you're going to need a criminal defense lawyer sooner rather than later.

[Egalitariat]

17. Nice cliche with the "everyone hates lawyers until they need one"

I know you are worshipped here, and I doubt its because you spout unoriginal lines such as that one.

However, you're right, I do want something done "about" lawyers and not something done "to" lawyers.

Nothing justifies violence in my opinion.

[WilliamPitt]

18. I suppose it is unoriginal

but since my mother, father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather and former girlfriend of nine years were all lawyers, I actually do know what I am talking about, my friend. Just because a line is unoriginal does not mean it isn't true.

[Egalitariat]

19. Actually, it's not true

because I don't hate lawyers. And there is such a tort as "unjust enrichment" and that is what I think this is.

The lawyers get $8MM, the class gets nothing. If the wrong by Allstate is worth nothing to the class, shouldn't the attorneys get nothing as well?

[BamaGirl]

20. Please don't make blanket judgements about lawyers and/or tort reform

My mother is a PI attorney. You know something? I did not grow up rich. Most of these people are doing a hell of a service to the American people. They go after the big guys when no one else will and the costs are phenomenal. Are there bad people in the bunch? Sure. But I know a lot of lawyers, and all of them are good people who only want to ensure that there is a fair playing field. You put any limits in place and you give the Reps the wedge they need to limit everything and get away scot free with whatever crime they want. The smear campaign against lawyers has got to stop. Think of them as the final check and balance. Because they damned sure are.

[Mandate My Ass]

21. You seriously need to educate yourself re: tort reform

Perhaps you can try a scholarly book by a real, live law professor rather than rely on the crap that gets shoved into your mailbox by who knows who. Try here, for instance:

Although criminal law and constitutional law get the headlines, the areas of law the most affect the lives of ordinary people – tort law, property law, and contract law – are quietly being unmade by a right-wing movement. The end result, according to Feinman, is increased burden on victims of accidental injuries; greater ease for corporations to dictate contract terms to workers and consumers; and a government severely limited in its ability to protect our natural environment.

“Less compensation, more victims,” is how Feinman describes the outcome of this stealth movement. “Throughout most of the 20th century, courts in the United States largely sought to protect the rights of the individual. The current conservative attack on the common law is radical. The Right is rejecting the main currents of American law that have developed during the past century, and to turn back the clock to the late 1800s, when the long-discredited idea that the market should be left to work without legal oversight held sway.

“This attack on the common law is part of a broader conservative agenda to reduce the ability of government to promote the common good. It espouses an ideology that claims that inequalities of wealth and power are natural, and that a legal system that enables or enhances those inequalities is nonpolitical and just. And that simply isn’t the legal system that every American alive today was born into or grew up under.”

http://ur.rutgers.edu/medrel/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=4115

[Ilsa]

24. You are supposed to get a free credit report eventually anyway.

That's what i heard the other day. Starts in the East and moving westward, but you have to request it.

So much for that award.

[Hosnon]

25. Hypothetical Tort Scenario:

Plaintiffs: 1,000,000

Average damage per plaintiff: $10

Defendant cheated public out of $10,000,000.

Obviously this shows the need for class action suits. Yes the attorneys may get a much higher percentage but they front most of the money for legal research which they will lose ALL of if the suit is lost.

Generally, the choice is between filing a class action and having attorneys bank big bucks or not file the class action and have the corporation get away with highway robbery.

Which is it? Lawyers getting legal deserved profits or corporations getting illegal undeserved bonuses?

[sandnsea]

26. Then keep getting fucked by corporations

The coupons are a bonus. The real benefit is lawyers making them stop the practices that were fucking you over.

Did you watch Bush and the TV woman or something? That's the only time I've head anybody complain about class action coupons.