Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner savaged a district court for approving a class action settlement that paid lead class counsel an $11 million fee while providing class members with benefits worth, in Judge Posner’s reckoning, no more than $8.5 million. Eubank v. Pella Corp., No. 13-2091 (7th Cir. June 2, 2014).
The fact that the lead counsel stands in jeopardy, for reasons collateral to the class action case, of losing his law license seems not to have helped his cause.
The opinion has lots of pointers on what not to do in a class action.