Settlement Archive

2009 – That’s a Wrap!

December 29th, 2009. By LucyC

Well, it’s been a busy year for lawyers—and class actions were certainly popular. Employment class actions, comprised of allegations of unpaid overtime and wages and violations of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) were among the most commonly filed lawsuits. Seems there’s no shortage of companies willing to fiddle the math. Even the biggies—Costco, McDonalds, AT&T, Marriott, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, UPS, Starbucks, Dominos Pizza—even Hooters! And I could go on. 

Other hot topics in 2009, included Chinese Drywall.

Who in this part of the world (and presumably China) has not heard of Chinese Drywall by now? Estimates suggest that possibly 100,000 people are affected by this toxic home building product, and on December 9, a federal class action was filed against Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin Co. Ltd. (KPT), one of the primary manufacturers implicated in the debacle. 

Overdraft fees were also a topic close to many peoples’ hearts in 2009. Bank Atlantic was one institution hit with a class action for allegedly manipulating the posting dates of consumer debit card and check transactions so they could make more money on customers’ overdraft fees. 

And speaking of fees, the issuers of prepaid debit cards also had their toes to the fire this year, among them Green Dot Visa for allegedly charging high fees on their ‘prepaid debit cards.’ 

Unfortunately, asbestos mesothelioma lawsuits—individual lawsuits not class actions—remained prominent this year. As more retirees are only now being diagnosed with the asbestos-related Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma, chinese drywall, Class Action, Drugs, Employment, Settlement
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Honda Settlement: When 26 AG’s say you’re drunk, lie down

December 17th, 2009. By AbiK

No, it’s not easy being green. And now it appears a few more folks other than Kermit know that all too well. Folks that bought the Honda Civic hybrid. Seems that when the car was advertised, its mileage was touted as 49 mpg for city, 51 mpg for highway.

Now, I’m the type of fool who never checks what my mpg is. But there are people out there that do—namely, John True from Ontario. He bought that Honda Civic hybrid in March of 2007 and well, according to detnews.com, he drove it for 6,000 miles only averaging 32 mpg in “mixed city/highway driving”. A bit shy of the 49-51 mpg range touted by Honda.

So, he sued.

Honda has since settled—but here’s the kicker: 26 state Attorneys General have objected to the settlement of the class action. (If ever one of my fave sayings applied (see headline, with liberties taken), it would be now.)

But what’s at the heart of their objections? Well, here’s what the settlement terms include: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Settlement
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7 Game-Changing Settlements of 2009

December 15th, 2009. By Kristine B

We’re in the countdown to year-end and looking over some of the more impactful settlements LawyersAndSettlements.com has covered over the past year. When we’re talking impactful, everyone around here has an opinion—so we had to throw in some criteria. To get the nod for impact, a settlement had to be one of two things: 1. High dollar value; or 2. Precedent-setting—or at least have the potential to influence similar cases to follow. (Sounds simple, but you try getting Stephen, John, Jaime, Michelle and Ben to settle in on just 7 settlements with just those criteria…) So here we go…7 game-changing settlements for ’09…

1) Family takes on GlaxoSmithKline  

Michelle David filed a lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, alleging the company’s antidepressant, Paxil was responsible for her son’s birth defects. David said she had taken Paxil while pregnant and was not aware of the potential side effects. GlaxoSmithKline said that birth defects occur in between three and five percent of all live births, regardless of Paxil use. 

A jury found, in a 10-2 decision, that GlaxoSmithKline’s officials were negligent in failing to warn David’s doctor about the risks of Paxil. The jury also found that Paxil was a factual cause of the little boy’s heart problems. David was awarded $2.5 million.

Why it’s impactful:There are 600 or so lawsuits alleging Paxil caused birth defects waiting in Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Philip Morris, Wal-Mart, Wyeth
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Whoa Baby! Thankful they’ve Settled…

November 26th, 2009. By AbiK

Just taking a moment on this very quiet (thankfully) Thanksgiving to recall all those who’ve…settled! It’s often a long journey, but the legal process does work and I’m sure there are many out there today who are thankful they went through it. Take a look…it’s our rather lengthy running list of published settlements. Of course, if you prefer to see them listed by category, click here.

Here, some of the recent settlements we’ve posted to our home page (don’t forget, you can easily keep up to date on new settlements by subscribing to our weekly newsletter; hey, you never know—you just might be a part of a settlement yourself)…

• Washington to Pay $13.7 Million to Demonstrators (Nov-24-09)
• Heelys Securities Class Action Settled for $5.25 Million (Nov-24-09)
• HRT Lawsuits Pharma Faces Multi Million Dollar Settlements (Nov-24-09)
• Cyclist Awarded $722,800 for Injury Resulting from Alleged Bicycle Defect (Nov-23-09)

Tags: Settlements
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Tagged.com agrees to pay up

November 10th, 2009. By AbiK

It’s really a small price to pay, but Tagged.com has agreed to settle—to the tune of $750k—with both New York state and Texas after both states charged the social networking site with using less than scrupulous tactics to try and build their user base.

If you recall—and we covered the drama on LawyersAndSettlements.com—Tagged.com was basically snagging users’ email lists and sending out “invitations” to those email addresses. The catch was that the invitations asked recipients to view private photos that the Tagged.com member wanted to share. Unfortunately, the Tagged.com member didn’t want to share any photos, and they had no clue that Tagged.com was going out and sending these emails to their entire personal email contact list.

For those who clicked through the invitation in hopes of finding those private photos, the only thing they really found was a ploy to get them to become Tagged.com members as well. Not cool.

So New York (specifically state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo) and Texas went after Tagged.com and now there’s an agreement to settle.

Of course, Tagged.com admits no wrongdoing. But they are going to pay $500,000 to New York and $250,000 to Texas. Along with paying these penalties, the Associated Press reports that Tagged.com will “not access contacts or send messages without the member’s informed permission” and it will “also provide clear and conspicuous disclosures”. 

Tags: Tagged.com
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