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August 06, 2005
Class action suits -- why bother?
I recently received a check in the mail, for $0.41 (that's "ZERO DOLLARS AND 41/100") from the Boehr Settlement Administrator of Faribault, Minnesota. The check was in payment of my share of a class-action settlement in response to a suit brought by one Christopher Boehr against American Express Centurion Bank (I used to have one of their credit cards, but I cancelled it about a year ago.)
Here's a story about the settlement:
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/07/25/editorial3.html
Apparently, American Express Centurion Bank was charging late fees even if you paid your bill on the due date, if the payment didn't arrive by 10:00am. While this is obviously not a practice designed to generate consumer satisfaction, it did generate a fair amount of late-fee revenue for the bank.
So this guy Boehr sues them on behalf of some huge number of class participants -- and then, when the case is settled, he gets a huge chunk of cash, while those of us who were actually affected by the bank's policies get 41 cents apiece.
I've received several class-action settlement notices in the past ten years, since I bought a '74 Chevy pickup truck. It's usually pretty much the same pattern: some lawyer has identified a design flaw (real or imagined) in the truck, which may or may not have caused any real harm to anyone -- but in any event, he has brought legal action against GM, and they've responded by offering a certain amount of money to make him go away. One of the settlements, if I recall, offered a $1,000 discount on the purchase of any new GM truck. Like I'm going to go out and buy a new truck because of this settlement? If you walk into any Chevy truck dealer, any day of the week, and say, "I'll buy this truck if you give me $1,000 off," the salesman will say "SOLD!" and hand you a purchase contract. Thanks a lot, Mr. Class Action Attorney.
I haven't decided whether I'm going to cash this 41-cent check that's sitting on my desk. It's good until January 8, 2006, so I've got awhile to decide. Should I take the money and run -- to the post office, maybe, to buy a stamp?
I'd like to know how much money Boehr got out of the deal....
Posted by Urbie at August 6, 2005 04:37 PM
Comments
I can top that! 23 cents from American Express. At least you could mail a whole letter and not just a postcard!
Posted by: Lisado at August 12, 2005 02:51 PM
How come we got a check for $1.06 when we never had an Amex card?? How much did the lawyers get? How much did Boehr get?
Posted by: Paul La Torra at October 18, 2005 10:46 AM