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April 18, 2008

When is $500 worth nothing? Local attorney thinks he knows

Weinstein makes plea as a consumer in Ford Explorer class action suit settlement

By Jayson Larson

Athens attorney Jeff Weinstein boarded a plane this week and traveled to Sacramento, Calif., to speak to a superior court judge.

Not in his capacity as an attorney, mind you. He doesn’t have a license to practice law in the state of California.

In this case, Weinstein was on the other side of the law, arguing as a consumer against a proposed settlement related to the value of his family’s 1998 Ford Explorer.

A California judge on Tuesday approved the settlement in a class-action suit that will compensate about 800,000 Ford Explorer owners in four states including Texas whose vehicles lost value because of a perceived rollover danger.

The compensation? Those who own an Explorer with a model year from 1991 to 2001 can submit a claim and receive a $500 voucher to buy another Explorer or receive a $300 voucher to purchase another Ford or Lincoln Mercury vehicle.

“Tell me why you’re going to spend $30,000 on a car to get the benefit of a $500 coupon,” Weinstein said Thursday.

While consumers are getting a coupon, attorneys in the case arranged their fees to be paid — in cash — to the tune of about $20 million.

Weinstein thinks that’s too much when the actual buyers of the vehicles are getting a coupon with no cash value.

Weinstein and his wife, Christi, joined in the class-action suit last month. He said Christi saw an article in a national publication regarding the proposed settlement. The article mentioned that Explorer owners within the model year range had an opportunity to formally protest the proposed settlement.

An Associated Press article published this week stated that fewer than 70 plaintiffs filed written objections to the settlement. Weinstein was among only a few people to show up to Sacramento Superior Court — the equivalent of a district court in Texas, he said — to speak to the judge.

What he got was about 20 minutes of what he called “nice banter,” but no satisfaction regarding his protest.

During his time, Weinstein said he told the judge, David De Alba, that President Bush and members of Congress wouldn’t agree with the settlement.

A puzzled De Alba asked how that could be, and Weinstein said he explained they had already approved the Class Action Fairness Act — which the Athens attorney noted cautions against the use of coupons in settlement deals without close scrutiny.

De Alba then asked Weinstein if he seriously thought the President of the United States would make such a statement.

Weinstein replied that he once lived a few miles down the road from Bush when the former Texas governor kept a residence near Athens.

“I can assure you,” Weinstein recalled telling De Alba, “if he found out about this case, he’d say it stinks because he doesn’t like class actions and he doesn’t like plaintiffs lawyers.”

Weinstein said he also suggested to De Alba that payment to the attorneys in the case be withheld until the court sees how many Explorer owners redeem the coupons.

Either that, he said, or pay about 1/3 of the fees due to the attorneys in Explorer coupons. He offered 1/3 as a number because roughly 1/3 of the plaintiffs in the case are from Texas.

Ultimately, the ideas didn’t have much of an impact.

“(De Alba) already had his mind made up before we came in,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein said he should have about 30 days to appeal De Alba’s decision to accept the settlement. He seems to still hold out a small amount of hope that the plaintiffs in the case could be offered an actual sum of money — even as small as $25 or $50 — or be allowed to sell their coupons.

“Cut me a check ... for $50, for $25,” he said. “I mean, at least I can go cash that and take my family out to dinner. That’s something that’s real.”

He said he also wouldn’t mind selling his off to the highest bidder on eBay. But as it stands now, the coupon is only good in his or his wife’s hands.

Weinstein said he understands the irony in speaking out against the large amount in fees that are to be paid to the attorneys in the case. But he said his cause centers on the fight to keep class action lawsuits as viable legal tools for the average citizen.

“If people don’t stand and fight for what’s right,” he said, “I’m afraid it really harms the (legal) process.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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