This past week I received a notice that the Verizon Wireless America’s Choice II Litigation had been settled and I received my award – 40 calling units equal to 40 minutes of domestic calling or roughly 13 minutes of international calling. Talk about meaningless, I never hit the subscribed minutes in my plan (we all subscribe for a little more than we think we will need because the penalty for going over the limit is so punitive) so this award is something less than meaningless.  However, the attorneys were awarded fees and cost not to exceed $6,000,000!

Somehow this has to stop. Allowing attorneys to pocket huge fees while those supposedly aggrieved receive token awards borders on robbery. A few years ago I received another notice of award in an action against State Farm Insurance. In that case the attorneys received something like $5,000,000 and the participants in the class were awarded the right to buy more insurance. In an earlier post I discussed the Lehman settlement with a similar huge award to attorneys. All of the costs in these suits are paid for by us – that’s right these awards are a cost of doing business and are figured in the price we pay for a product or service.

Let’s start leaning on our elected representatives to pass real tort reform. Until that time we can look for more of the same.