Lawyers Lose $2M Award for HP Inkjet Settlement

Courthouse News reports on Ted Frank's work to object to settlements that break the Class Action Fairness Act.

While two members of the class, Kimberly Schratwieser and Theodore Frank, objected to the settlement on a number of grounds, the 9th Circuit reached only the attorneys' fees question in a divided reversal on Wednesday.

The question came down to differing interpretations of Section 3 of the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), which sets down specific rules for calculating fees and costs in class-action cases where the lawyers get cash and the plaintiffs get a coupon.

"When a settlement provides for coupon relief, either in whole or in part, any attorney's fee 'that is attributable to the award of coupons' must be calculated using the redemption value of the coupons," Judge Milan Smith wrote for the San Francisco-based majority.

Instead, the lower court "estimated the 'ultimate value' of the settlement to the class at roughly $1.5 million," Smith wrote, noting that it recognized "that it would be improper to award fees that outstrip the calculated class benefit."

Read the full article at Courthouse News.