Remember Google Plus? Remember its privacy blunder? Remember applying for a slice of a settlement? Check your bank accounts this month. A settlement payment from Google, regarding a privacy hole in its now-defunct Google+ social network, may be winging its way to you. All $2.15 of it. The vulnerability in question was in the Google+ People API. It could have been exploited by third-party apps to swipe people’s personal …
That's class action lawsuits for you. Every now and again I'll get some letter from the US saying how I'm a victim in class action payout, usually for such a pissy amount it would cost me more to respond or cash the cheque.
The lawyers who launch them don't really give a shit about fighting for a fair settlement - only about their own fees. Presumably they're very adept at pitching the lowest amount cash settlement that a victim company will pay to make them go away and move onto the next target.
That seems like a fair settlement. Evidently the judge was looking out for the class member interests. Otherwise the plaintiff lawyers might have sold their own clients down the river so they could get big fees without having to go to trial.
Remember folks, it is he best justice system money can buy. And guess who has the money.
As far as I'm concerned, the lawyers representing users in this case (and most every class action case) have failed to represent the best interests of their clients and should be subject to professional sanction, not that they ever will. They just want to be the ones responsible for bringing $2m back to the firm from a single case and the heroes it will make them in the eyes of the partners... whose ranks they probably hope to soon join.
"Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
reformation. There shall be in England seven
halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped
pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony 2370
to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in
common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,— "
If a lawyer wants to charge £100ph, I don't mind that.
These blood suckers will likely be charging $1000ph for their time working on this case.
US corporations can be good or bad, but class action lawsuit settlements are just another realm of despicable filth.
The lawyers always get a good settlement. You know why? Because both lawyers are the ones signing the agreements. The lawyer will only push for a settlement and agree for it, if the legal costs are paid in full. Who cares about the 'customer'?
Oh yeah, I vaguely remember joining that at one point not long after it started up, as did a couple of my friends. I think I may have used it once or twice before deciding it was a pile of shit and then, of course, it got sent to the Google Graveyard to join lots of its mates.
I hate to defend Google even a little bit, but patching a bug without telling anyone wasn't (and I believe still isn't) a crime so a judge could not have fined or otherwise punished them. They agreed to pay what the plaintiffs demanded, presumably after negotiations.
Lawyers, on the other hand, are ambulance chasing leeches. There needs to be a mechanism to limit lawyer's fees and ancillary costs to a percentage of the plaintiffs' award. I am really sick of stories that read, in essence, the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.announced the success of their class action suit with an award of 100,000,000 quid. After attorney's fees and court and administrative costs, plaintiffs will each get tuppence.
BTW, the excerpt Julz posted stops before the relevant line - Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2 - Dick: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
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