Dewey v. Volkswagen, Water Ingress Settlement objection

The Dewey v. Volkswagen settlement where attorneys are asking for over $23 million for recovering an $8 million reimbursement fund for a small subset of the class (but attributing tens of millions of dollars to a valuation of injunctive relief where VW and Audi send a letter to class members) has gotten a lot of reaction around the Internet. (E.g., Major, Olson (and commenters), Pero, CJAC, Passat World.)

Today, the Center for Class Action Fairness filed an objection on behalf of four class members, including one who gets nothing despite water leakage into the passenger compartment that required over $1000 of repairs. The fairness hearing is July 26. Oddly (but all too typically), objections are due before the parties make their filings and present their evidence for the fairness of the settlement, so we’ll need to make a supplemental filing July 12 to address the expert report’s valuation of the injunctive relief.

The case is Dewey v. Volkswagen AG, No. 07-CV-2249 (D.N.J.).

Update, June 16: see also Public Citizen.