Coming on the heels of the less-than-entirely successful Czech case, reported below (state claims were dismissed without prejudice saving the case from an outright defeat (subject to appeal, of course)), it seems only fair to highlight a case in the same industry in which the same plaintiffs’ class action counsel, Rob Shelquist of Lockridge Grindal, had greater success.
Hearing on final settlement of cases brought nationwide against mobile “content providers” (mp3s, ring-tones, horoscopes, and so on) (in Minnesota, cases against Minnesota-based w3i, Dada, Playphone, and others) is set for January 7, 2010 in Chicago. Shelquist was on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for this wide-spread litigation.
Interesting aside: per the settlement, class members are giving the chance to donate their individually meager $10 cash recovery (from a multi-million dollar fund) to one of a list of charities, a donation then matched by plaintiff’s counsel up to $250,000 (which, presumably, can come from the $4 million-$11 million fee award they seek as class counsel).