Līve Ambitions

I just read about a class action lawsuit from Rust Consulting in which they propose a settlement against Yahoo search marketing.  The lawsuit alleges that “Yahoo breached its contract with its customers by allowing Yahoo ads to be displayed in spyware, domain name parking sites (bulk registration sites), pop-ups, pop-unders and typosquatting sites.”  Here’s the settlement page: https://secureweb.rustconsulting.com/inreyahoosettlement/

Ok, that’s all fine and dandy, but if you read a bit deeper, you’ll see some startling details.  To be eligible for the measly $20 settlement, the advertiser must be out of business.  But that’s not the worst part.  The lawyers representing the case will be paid a whopping $4,170,000 – plus a reimbursement expense fee of $100,000.  What kind of nonsense is this?  The people that were directly hurt by Yahoo’s wrong-doing only get $20, while the lawyers get the bulk of the deal.  This is not just a slap in the face, but also represents loopholes in the legal system which allows lawyers to feed their greed and file bogus lawsuits.

I know about these bogus lawsuits 1st hand because I was involved in a couple of them before.  One was against LendingTree and the other was against CommissionJunction.  I didn’t receive a penny in either case because the bulk of the settlement went to the lawyers.  And, the story seems to be the same in nearly every class action lawsuit – the members don’t receive squat!