Need Another Lawyer Joke – Here’s One – How Much Do Lawyers Get Paid in a Class Action Case Settlement Where the Plaintiffs Get Nothing?

Answer:  $2.3 Million

But It’s Not Really a Joke, Is It?

The legal profession is often hurt and annoyed that it is held in such disrepute by the American public.  Of course what it fails to see is that it often earns the scorn that it is subject to.  Case in point.

WASHINGTON — “We always knew this settlement would get a tremendous amount of attention,” Scott A. Kamber told the federal appeals court in San Francisco a couple of years ago.

He was defending a novel bargain he had struck with Facebook on behalf of millions of users whose privacy he said the company had violated. The settlement’s central innovation was to cut Mr. Kamber’s clients out of the deal.

The class members would get nothing. The plaintiffs’ lawyers would get about $2.3 million. Facebook would make a roughly $6.5 million payment — to a new foundation it would partly control.

Well surely an Appellate Court would not allow this.  Or maybe it would.

The appeals court upheld the settlement last year by a 2-to-1 vote, with the majority saying it was “fair, adequate and free from collusion.”

Remember, appeals court judges may get tired of the large salary and great fringe benefits they get as judges and go back to being private practice lawyers.  So that’s one reason why they might rule in favor of this.

Cynical?  Well how can one not be a cynic in this case.