Slashdot Mirror
Florida Citizens' Anti-trust Payout Dwarfed By Lawyers'
According to Robin "Roblimo" Miller's article on NewsForge, Florida residents are receiving word by electronic and postal mail about the likely outcome of that state's class action suit against Microsoft (last mentioned on Slashdot last September): the upshot is that Florida residents who purchased a Microsoft operating system or Microsoft Office would be eligible for a settlement payment (in vouchers) of $5-12; the lawyers involved are seeking $48 million in fees. The settlement terms have several interesting clauses; for instance, by accepting, you would be agreeing to "settle and release all claims, demands, actions, suits, and causes of action against Microsoft and/or its directors, officers, employees, attorneys, insurers or agents, whether known or unknown, asserted or unasserted, that any member of the Florida Settlement Class ever had, could have had, now has or hereafter can, shall or may have, relating in any way to ... any conduct, act or omission that was or could have been alleged in this case as the basis for any antitrust or unfair competition claims."
In case the site (or routes to the site) get slashdotted, here is a mirror to the link.
Caveat: IAAL.
Of course the lawyers' payout will dwarf the payout of the individual class members - that's exactly why the class-action is structured this way. Individual claims are not worth enough to each member, considering the time, energy and money necessary to pursue an action. Aggregating the class makes this worthwhile, and attorneys take a percentage - and, often, these suits go nowhere, with a contingency of zero.
I believe /. article is a bit misleading. It makes it seems like the attorneys are taking their fees directly from the total settlement amount. From the article:
If the Court approves the settlement, the Court will determine reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses to be awarded to Class Counsel. The attorneys' fees and expenses approved by the Court will be paid by Microsoft, and will not reduce, in any way, the amount of Settlement Benefits paid to Class Members.
So really, the people aren't getting stiffed, they're just getting gypped. However, the people of Florida will get some indirect benefits:
Microsoft will donate to public schools in Florida with at least 50% of their students qualifying for the federal free and reduced-price school lunch programs, 50% of the difference between the total maximum amount of the vouchers ($202 million) and the value of issued vouchers, if the settlement is approved.
So, while the settlement values seem extremely small, in reality, they're just small. At least the vouchers aren't for more Microsoft software.
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
This is how the lawsuit industry works, silly. They're flush with cash from the tobacco settlement and there are dozens of firms out there right now filing class-action suits right and left. Most you don't hear about because the company settles for a few mil.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
These lawyer are getting 20% ($202 M for clients $48 M for lawyers) While $48M is a lot of money 20% is not really unprecidented.
It's a civil case, which operates under dramatically different rules than a criminal case operates under.
Basically, once the settlement has been reached, the plaintiff(s) file a series of motions for continuance and then when the settlement is consummated, they tell the judge that they're dropping the case. This is nothing close to a verdict; indeed, settlements have little to no effect on any other cases.
Far from it. A settlement is not considered an admission of wrongdoing or liability (unless one of the terms of the settlement is that the defendant make a public proclamation of such). Indeed, most settlements are in cases where the defendant has the far stronger case and the greater likelihood of winning. The plaintiff attorney's goal is to prevent the case from ever going to trial and instead get a settlement for his client(s); the odds are generally against the plaintiffs once it goes to trial. The defendant settles in these cases because, especially if they're a large corporation, it's cheaper to settle early rather than pay their lawyers' fees (especially if appeals and such are counted), to say nothing of the non-zero (though, on average, less than 40%) probability of them losing.
RTFA. It specifically and repeatedly says the coupons apply to a broad range of hardware and software, including Macs and Linux boxed sets.
It's still an outrage, but...
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
By taking the settlement money, you've settled your claim with Microsoft. If you don't think this is a fair settlement, then don't take it and pursue your own case.
And let's face it folks, even though the settlement is given in the form of vouchers, we're geeks. Like it or not, we're going to buy computer equipment and/or software anyways within the next few years. The vouchers seem to be good towards almost anything of this nature, so it's really not as bad as you think it is. In principle, it's not as good as cash. But economically, it's exactly the same thing. And if not, there's always eBay.
The settlement "settles" any and all anti-trust wrongs MS may have done in the past. By accepting that $5 or $12 check, you agree to the terms of the settlement (ie: you agree that $5-$12 covers any and all "damages" MS did to you, regardless of things you may or may not know about at the date of the settlement).
This does not cover any future wrongs they may do, just existing ones that you may or may not know about today.
Of course, the typical IANAL disclaimer applies.
Hmm.
The problem is the scale of the lawyer's cut. $48 million? One has to ask how many lawyers there were actually working on the case (i.e. real, hard work), what their expenses were, and what the (real) time put in was.
I'm willing to bet the end result is in excess of $300 net per man-hour of work. Consider that that's roughly FIVE TO TEN TIMES what most other highly skilled professions draw as a salary.
Do they deserve to be compensated? Of course! Just not to this extreme.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
No, it simply settles all claims there were, or could have been alleged. As stated in the article, the settlement provides that it bars any claim:
A person who accepts the class action settlement can still sue for claims that could not have been alleged in this suit -- e.g., claims that arose after the suit because of Microsoft's alleged subsequent wrongful conduct.
The settlement agreement is standard. It is the way such claims are always settled.
You can't expect Microsoft, or any defendant, to give something of value to somebody in a settlement, and then allow that person to turn around and sue them for more.
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
Anyway, this is indeed not the case. Timothy missed the part that states
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
The attorneys who spent time on this lawsuit deserve to be paid for their work. The people who were members of the class action did no work whatsoever, therefore the lawyers should get at least 1/5 of the settlement (48 m). They did all the work, and battled in court for years, while the people who bought windows did no work whatsoever on the case except sign on to the lawsuit and then sit back to wait and see what happened.
20 lawyer firm at $150,000 per year, plus benefits probably runs more like $4,000,000. Count in another 20 paralegals and clerks at $40,000 a year each, plus benefits comes to approximately $1,000,000. Office space, supplies, furniture, telephones, computers, yada-yada for 40 people and the reams and reams of documents, about $1,000,000. Advertising costs, which are required in a class action suit, $1,000,000. Taking your $1,000,000 for direct court costs, we are already at $8,000,000 and we haven't even hired an expert witness yet.
No other industry expects to reap a 1100% profit on a two year effort.
It is not unusual for a case of this size to cost $10,000,000. Furthermore most of these cases fail.
Therefore the economics are:
1) Bring four cases at a cost of $10,000,000 each.
2) Lose three.
3) Win one to the tune of $48,000,000.
4) Profit $8,000,000 on a $40,000,000 outlay.
A %20 profit doesn't seem nearly as unresonable.