The Little Guy Goes After Class Action Abuse
I know what this guy is talking about here. I became one of the two lead plaintiffs in Ted Frank's suit against the class action abuse in a Costco gas case, after I saw him seeking plaintiffs on Overlawyered.com.

I love Costco (they treat their employees well and I get great deals there) and I drive a car that gets about 45 mpg in the city. So, if I got "cheated" because of hot weather when I pumped gas, it was probably for a half cent.

I joined Ted's case because I'm disgusted by what I call "the business of abuse."

This guy is disgusted by it, too. David Lat writes at above The Law of a law student, William Chamberlain, who wrote a hilarious brief objecting to the absolutely unfair way settlements are dispensed, with big bucks going to a law firm, more big bucks doled out elsewhere (sometimes to a judge's favorite charity, Ted explained to me, and never mind whether it relates to the class), and sometimes zero money for the class the lawyers are supposedly representing.

Chamberlain wrote in screenplay form, and I love what he did. An excerpt from the middle, but read the whole thing at Above The Law:

Counsel: Well, one of the things we got in the settlement was an injunction that prevents CytoSport from marketing their product improperly in the future. We both agreed that the injunction is worth $1 million, and that's part of the $5 million figure.

Class Member: Huh? We're all sitting right here. We were deceived in the past - we're not going to be deceived in the future, with or without this injunction. How does it help us going forward?

Counsel: Well, you know, maybe it doesn't help you, but there have to be a bunch of other people out there who've never tried Muscle Milk. This will help them - they won't be deceived about this for the next three years! All because of us!

Class Member: All because of you, eh? So prior to this lawsuit, they were misrepresenting the health benefits of their product, and it was your lawsuit that spurred them to change their labeling?

Counsel: Well, to be honest, no. CytoSport had received an FDA warning letter in 2011, and was planning to change their labels prior to this settlement.

Class Member: So what you're saying is that the FDA got CytoSport to stop labeling its products improperly, and you got an injunction to prevent them from doing something they had already stopped doing?

Counsel: Yeah! We worked really hard on that. It was a huge concession.

Class Member: What's your basis for saying that this was worth $1,000,000 again?

via @danieldfisher