I think the main source of dislike is that the lawyers appear to be the only ones profiting: they receive substantial payouts, the lead plaintiffs they talk to receive payments, but the bulk of the class they supposedly represent receives worthless coupons. The suspicion is that they're negotiating primarily for themselves, willing to sell out the class with a shitty settlement, as long as they themselves get a good payout from it.
I've been reasonably happy with class-action lawyers when they've negotiated actual, non-trivial cash-money payments for their class. But Ticketmaster store credit, so they can take home money while failing to get anything for the class they supposedly represent? Fuck off. I filed an objection to the proposed settlement when I received that offensive proposal. If all they can negotiate is $1.50 in store credit, then I think we can safely say that they failed in their lawsuit, and shouldn't get any payment.
Sounds like a problem of the selection of legal representation. It seems there needs to be some, ah, website that helps to put together groups of plaintiffs and organizes the process of selecting a good legal team to represent them ...
... if the website got 0.25% of every settlement, it could be pretty lucrative.
As I understand it (IANAL) the vast majority of members of the class find out during the settlement process, i.e. well AFTER the lawyers have been picked.
You can technically "opt out" and go sue the company yourself, but you're not going to get people who realistically, upon receiving notice that they are getting an unexpected settlement in-between two utility bills, decide to form their own class.
Right. The point would to allow this kind of thing to happen more organically. Those with a grievance would aggregate before the legal team was chosen.
Long term, if the class action changes the practice that led to the case, than all the future customers benefit too. It's hard to calculate that kind of benefit, but it's a nice benefit.
I've been reasonably happy with class-action lawyers when they've negotiated actual, non-trivial cash-money payments for their class. But Ticketmaster store credit, so they can take home money while failing to get anything for the class they supposedly represent? Fuck off. I filed an objection to the proposed settlement when I received that offensive proposal. If all they can negotiate is $1.50 in store credit, then I think we can safely say that they failed in their lawsuit, and shouldn't get any payment.