Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
A federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois has given final approval to three major cruise lines and a travel agency of a $12.5 million class-action settlement. The defendants were accused of bombarding consumers nationwide with prerecorded telemarketing calls promoting cruise trips without their consent.
Defendants Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited, Norwegian Cruise Lines Limited, and Resort Marketing Group, the travel agency that allegedly operated the auto-dialing system, contributed to the settlement fund together. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants’ use of unsolicited robocalls violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
More than 270,000 valid claims were filed following the initial approval of the settlement in July 2017. According to documents filed in support of the settlement, a total 274,851 valid claims were filed. According to Judge Andrea R. Wood, the judge overseeing the case, this works out to roughly $22 per claim.
In addition to the claims, thirty-one objections were filed opposing the terms of the settlement. Despite these objections, Judge Wood found that the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. Much of the dissatisfaction identified by the objectors center around the amount of the settlement. As Judge Wood explained at the approval hearing, some media outlets reported that class members would be receiving as much as several hundred dollars apiece, but this pro-rata amount for each claim decreased dramatically following an influx of claims made following media coverage of the settlement. “The surge of claimants that resulted from the press coverage was not a situation created by the parties,” and thus did not render the settlement inadequate.
In addition to the amounts to be doled out to members of the affected class, the attorneys who represented the class were awarded $3,150,000.00 in attorneys’ fees using a percentage-of-the-fund method, which amounted to 33.99% of the total settlement fund after subtracting administrative costs and the named plaintiff’s incentive award of $25,000 for serving as the class representative.
Two of the objectors requested separate incentive awards and attorneys’ fees totaling more than six figures, but the judge found that their efforts to increase the settlement terms and influence the class notice procedures did not amount to material contributions which would justify such payouts.
Our Chicago, Illinois business and class action defense law firm handles individual and class action gift card, data breach, privacy rights, deceptive advertising, predatory lending, unfair debt collection, lemon law, and other consumer fraud cases that government agencies and public interest law firms such as the Illinois Attorney General may not pursue. Class action lawsuits our law firm has been involved in or spear-headed have led to substantial awards totaling over a million dollars to organizations including the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center, and local law school consumer programs. The Chicago class action lawyers at Lubin Austermuehle are proud of our achievements in assisting national and local consumer rights organizations to obtain the funds needed to ensure that consumers are protected and informed of their rights. By standing up to consumer fraud and consumer rip-offs, and in the right case filing consumer protection and class-action lawsuits, you too can help ensure that other consumers’ rights are protected from consumer rip-offs and unscrupulous or dishonest practices.
Our Schaumburg and Evanston consumer attorneys provide assistance in a data breach, privacy violation, fair debt collection, consumer fraud, and consumer rights cases including in Illinois and throughout the country. You can click here to see a description of the some of the many individual and class-action consumer cases our Chicago consumer lawyers have handled. Our Chicago business lawyers have more than thirty-five years of experience helping business clients on unraveling complex business fraud and breach of fiduciary duty cases. Our Cook County class-action defense attorneys represent individuals, family businesses and enterprises of all sizes in a variety of legal disputes, including as well as lawsuits between businesses and consumers, auto fraud, and wage claim individual and class action cases. In every case, our goal is to resolve disputes as quickly and successfully as possible, helping business clients protect their investments and get back to business as usual. From offices in Elmhurst and Wilmette, near Waukegan, and Oak Brook, we serve clients throughout Illinois and the Midwest.
If you’re facing a business or class-action lawsuit and you’d like to discuss how the experienced Illinois class action attorneys at Lubin Austermuehle can help defend your business, we would like to hear from you. To set up a consultation with one of our Naperville and Chicago business law attorneys and class action and consumer trial lawyers, please call us at 630 333-0333 or contact us online.