Legal Action of Wisconsin has received $175,000 in cy pres awards after plaintiffs in a pair of class-action lawsuits failed to collect their awards.
In one case, more than 100 plaintiffs failed to collect $1,159 each, and that amount — $112,245 — ended up being given to Legal Action of Wisconsin, the organization that was designated as the beneficiary of any unclaimed funds.
In another case, this one a Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuit, Legal Action of Wisconsin received more than $60,000.
“Holy cow, that’s a lot of money,” said Thomas Lyons, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, way more than anyone expected when a cy pres was negotiated at the start of the process, said in a published report.
The unexpected windfalls were hugely beneficial because there are no requirements about how the money is allocated and because President Trump has called for the elimination of Legal Services Corp., which is a large source of the Legal Action’s annual budget.
Legal Action of Wisconsin has about 55 lawyers on staff. Anyone who is critical of class-action lawsuits should look to this development as a reason why they are good for the public, the plaintiff’s attorney said.
“Critics always say (class actions) are bad because class members might get less than the lawyers,” he said. “Well, the public should know (the cases) tame the conduct of the violator, benefiting not just the class, but the public at large.”
