Howard Erichson was quoted in a USA Today article about cy pres settlements of class action lawsuits.
The Supreme Court faces a difficult question: What happens when there are 129 million winners in a class action lawsuit, each of whom stands to receive 4 cents?
Federal judges in California thought they had an answer. Faced with a privacy invasion lawsuit first filed against Google in 2010, they approved an $8.5 million settlement that split most of the proceeds among six universities and nonprofit groups researching internet privacy issues.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers got more than $2 million.
Google users got nothing.
…
The court may be wary about being too prescriptive, however. The justices aren’t likely to go beyond setting broad standards for lower court judges to follow.“The Supreme Court has the opportunity to encourage or discourage the use of this kind of remedy,” says Howard Erichson, a professor at Fordham University School of Law and an expert on class actions and legal ethics. “Whatever it says will be the go-to language for every district judge.”
To make his case before the justices on Wednesday, Frank chose a lawyer who knew much about such third-party settlements: himself. That puts him in a select group of plaintiffs who have argued their own cases at the Supreme Court.
“I hope I’ve picked the optimal attorney to argue this,” he says, “because it’s obviously an issue I care about.”
