On Saturday, I was surprised to receive a $2 check from the Gudgel v. Reynolds class action lawsuit.
The plaintiffs alleged that Reynolds’ use of the claim “recycling” on the packaging misrepresented that its recycling trash bags under the Hefty and Great Value brands were recyclable. They said the company’s recycling trash bags aren’t recyclable at many solid waste disposal facilities and aren’t suitable for the disposal of recyclable products at such facilities.
Reynolds denied the allegations but agreed to settle the lawsuit.
In the last decade or so, I’ve probably received one or two dozen announcements about class action lawsuits. Some require that you sent in receipts. Although I keep mine for about 10 years, I never gone through them to send copies as a proof of purchase.
Kiplinger, a personal finance website, says not to expect a windfall if you take part in a class action lawsuit.
“Individual class members rarely see a fat payday,” Kiplinger said in its article “6 Things to Know About Class Action Lawsuits.”
In 2024, class action settlements totaled $42 billion, according to a review by Duane Morris LLP.
Apple, Meta, and Walt Disney Company were among the companies whose class action lawsuits were settled for millions of dollars last year.
The largest settlements in 2024 occurred in 10 major areas, according to the research project that examined 1,441 class action lawsuits:
- Product liability $23.40 billion.
- Antitrust $8.41 billion.
- Security fraud $2.55 billion.
- Consumer fraud $2.44 billion.
- Privacy $1.94 billion.
- Wage and hour $614.55 million.
- Data breaches $593.2 million.
- Private industry pension plans $413.3 million.
- Government enforcement litigation $327.9 million.
- Discrimination $313.5 million.
In the future, I’ll be paying more attention to those announcements I receive in the mail and be sure to follow through.
Some consumer contracts (can be for cellphone service, online clothing purchase, pretty much any kind of “consumer” contract can now legally include a provision that the person agrees not to participate in any class action. That’s in addition to agreeing to mandatory arbitration which effectively means denial of access to state courts, & being subjec to secret law, since decisions of arbitrators deoesn’t have to be published as almost all court case decisions/judgments are, although corporations often require people who’ve settled w/them to sign NDA so other similar plaintiffs (such as people suing Bayer-Monsanto for injuries/illnesses, etc., caused by exposure to the active ingredient in RoundUp), the plaintiff who won a large award in court, ended up settling so that he & his family (his heirs since he is or was quite ill) could actually get some of the money awarded as Bayer was clearly going to appeal & appeal. Some federal district courts are struggling to try to keep up w/their caseloads, so llitigants can wait for several years to have an appellate court hear their appeals (or review their arguments & issue a decision. People die, corporations don’t.
The legal system certainly is stacked in favor of people and companies that have money. That’s my experience from a small claims court experience and filing a lawsuit over a faulty roof, which was settled in my favor, surprisingly, in arbitration. My attorney said I should do arbitration since it would be cheaper. She coached me in what to do, and surprisingly, I won. However, most of the money I won went to her attorneys fees.