Watchdog Group Files Objection to Equifax Settlement
The class action watchdog Center for Class Action Fairness has filed an objection to the Equifax data breach class action settlement. They claim that the attorney fee request should be reduced and that the settling parties suppressed the claims process.
Equifax reached a settlement earlier this year, after one of the biggest data breaches in hsitory, which affected most adult Americans.
The objection states that Class counsel structured the settlement and claims process unfairly which will deter objections and stifle monetary claims.
The Equifax settlement includes a single Class of around 147 million customers whose personal information was exposed due to a data breach in 2017. The objection says that there should be different classes of customers and it should be more clear on how each class can maximize its refund based on respective statutes.
In addition, the court documents state that the requirements for objecting to the settlement are too burdensome and were designed to lower the number of objections that are filed.
The settlement requires that any individual who would like to object to the settlement must provide four dates between Nov. 19, 2019 and Dec. 5, 2019 when they would be available to be deposed. Also, objectors are required to identify all class actions that they have objected to within the past five years.
As for attorney fees, they are awarded 21 percent of the settlement amount. That is more than twice the average percentage awarded in settlements of this size.
The Equifax data breach settlement initially offered Class Members a choice of either $125 in cash or 10 years of credit monitoring. But it was soon clear that the payout would be much lower than that, plus it was more difficult to claim the cash payout.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
