Birthday wishes

Frank Bednarz, who was with CCAF in the early going, and has since moved on to more lucrative intellectual property litigation, wins the Internet today by writing on my Facebook page:

As a member of the injured class of overlooked December birthdays, I have won for you a [voucher, certificate, valuable redemption offer] that entitles you to enjoy all of the Christmastime sales on or around your birthday in perpetuity. Although the face value of this victory is infinite, our expert economist calculated the value over the next 20 years (using aggressive growth rates and no time discount rate), finding that the class will gain approximately $200 billion over this period. However, I am only requesting lodestar for myself and my crack team of 30 paralegals, with a lodestar multiplier of 8. This is incredibly modest on cross-check; slightly less than 0.1% of class benefit over the next 20 years. Mathematically, fees approach 0% of the non-time discounted, boundless value of settlement. 

Happy 101st anniversary of Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole!

October and November doings

In addition to our Supreme Court amicus and our MagSafe appellate brief, we've kept busy over the last two months.

• We had oral arguments in the Second, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits on the Blessing v. Sirius XM, Pampers Dry Max, and HP Inkjet appeals. Only Inkjet is available online.
• The district court ruled against us in Johnson & Johnson after some additional briefing; we've appealed, and (assuming that the court orders more than a token amount of attorneys' fees; the fee award has not yet been made) will raise the question of first impression of whether securities lawyers who regularly rely upon the efficient market hypothesis can ask a court to rely upon an expert opinion contradicting it when it is inconvenient for their theory of attorney-fee recovery.
• We filed our reply brief in the Online DVD appeal.
• We filed our reply brief in the Texas Frontier Oil appeal over a $0 settlement, which has gotten some press attention. Oral argument is scheduled in Houston in January 16. I was a Bellaire debater, but this is my first time in a Texas court.
• $2.7 million was paid to class members $3.93 at a time in the Classmates case. This is paltry, but more than the $56,000 or so class counsel was going to be happy with had we not successfully. objected. [Ars Technica]

We filed interesting objections in two new cases in California federal courts over the last few days, and I'll discuss over the course of the week.