Judge: Randall J. Sherman, Case: 2018-00992682, Date: 2022-09-30 Tentative Ruling

The tentative ruling is to continue the hearing on plaintiffs’ Motion for Final Approval of Class Action Settlement and Motion for Award of Attorneys’ Fees, Costs and Service Awards to January 13, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.  Counsel must file supplemental papers addressing the court’s concerns (not fully revised papers that would have to be re-read) at least 16 days before the next hearing date.

During the preliminary approval stage, plaintiffs’ counsel represented that there were 7,844 class members, but only 6,964 class members were provided with the class notice.  Plaintiffs have not provided any explanation for this discrepancy.

The opt out request of one putative class member was rejected because it omitted the last four digits of the person’s Social Security number, and the follow-up request was ignored.  Counsel must explain why this omission would be a legitimate basis for rejecting the opt-out request.

The parties provided an estimate of the highest and average class settlement payments, but failed to provide an estimate of the lowest class settlement payment.

Two of plaintiffs’ law firms, Bradley Grombacher, LLP and The Bainer Law Firm, have failed to provide their attorneys’ bills or a detailed hourly breakdown of their attorneys’ hours to support the court’s review of the attorneys’ fees request.  The summary chart in ¶24 of the Bradley Declaration and ¶4 of the Bainer Declaration are insufficient to support a lodestar cross-check of the fee request, which the court requires in its discretion.  A detailed hourly breakdown of all of plaintiffs’ attorneys’ hours is required.

The total litigation costs supported by invoices provided by plaintiffs’ three law firms are $22,351.68, but the settlement administrator’s declaration states that the litigation costs of $22,486.87 shall be deducted from the gross settlement amount.  There is no explanation for this discrepancy.

There is no invoice to support the settlement administrator’s fee request of $32,999.00.

Plaintiffs should propose a Final Report Hearing date, taking into account the time deadlines associated with funding the settlement, mailing distributions, allowing the check-cashing deadline to pass, and depositing uncashed check funds pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement.  The court usually sets these hearings nine months after settlement approval if the check cashing deadline is 180 days.  The parties must report to the court the total amount that was actually paid to the class members.  All supporting papers must be filed at least 16 days before the Final Report Hearing date.

Plaintiffs are ordered to give notice of the ruling to defendant unless such notice is waived.