Here's one of those stories (Judge Criticizes Fee in Lawsuits) that people cite as good reason to hate lawyers (someone, by the way, recently said, you love your own lawyer and hate everyone elses').

This article, by Joseph Neff at McClatchy Newspapers, recounts a harshly criticized class action settlement that netted the attorneys nearly one million dollars in fees and the "injured consumers" $2,402.

Now, I've both prosecuted and defended class actions in my own legal career -- enough to do so competently, but not enough to know what I can't do.  I settled one of the few class-actions I defended for injunctive relief only (promises never to do the alleged bad deed again) together with a few hundred thousand dollars in attorney fees.

The Judge who approved this settlement is notorious for his refusal to approve class compromises that excessively reward the attorneys and inadequately compensate the class.  He is, for instance, a harsh critic of "coupon-only" settlements, i.e., settlements giving the class coupons to purchase the offenders' goods - settlements that act more as free advertising for the product than compensation for the plaintiffs.

Still . . . . if the class action is only marginally viable, it makes sense for the defendant (and the Court) to satisfy the attorneys with  an award of fees without making the defendant spend millions of dollars to compensate a class whose injuries or right to proceed is highly questionable.

Why the below referenced settlement met with the court's scathing criticism, we'll probably never know.  The big disparity in numbers coupled with the court's "outrage" (it's amazing how easily "outrage" comes to attorneys and judges, by the way) makes headlines.  The eventual resolution of the matter rarely does.

Link to the story and excerpt below:

RALEIGH, N.C. --An N.C. judge has harshly criticized the settlement of a class action lawsuit in which a Wilmington lawyer and colleagues received $950,000 in fees while injured consumers across the country were reimbursed a total of $2,402.

Superior Court Judge Ben Tennille decried the excessive fees and the lack of effort made to reach customers who had been overcharged for wheel alignments at Sears automotive centers. Tennille, who specializes in complex business cases, criticized Sears and the lawyers for trying to hide the settlement results from him.

"Their efforts to keep the results secret are understandable," Tennille wrote in his May decision. "The shocking incongruity between class benefit and the fees ... leave the appearance of collusion and cannot help but to tarnish the public perception of the legal profession."

Sears is appealing Tennille's decision and declined to discuss the case.

Gary Shipman, a Wilmington lawyer who led the class action lawsuit, attacked Tennille's order as wrong on the law and filled with factual errors. Shipman complained that Tennille issued his ruling out of the blue, two years after the last hearing in the case. And Shipman said the judge did not have jurisdiction and therefore did not have the power to make decisions in the case.

Read remainder of story here.