Let’s talk about class actions and how those work. What typically happens is someone will reach out to us, and I can give you an example. Someone reached out to us and said, “My house burned up, and for all my content and valuables in the house, State Farm offered me pennies on the dollar for what they were worth.” And they said that if they were three or four years old, even though they were in perfect condition, they were worthless. They just straight-line depreciated those.
We said, well, that’s not right. It’s not what’s appropriate under California law, and we took that one person’s case and filed suit against State Farm on behalf of everyone in California who’d had their personal property lost or damaged and paid for by State Farm, their insurance company. We fought State Farm all the way through motions, through appeals, and ultimately through trial, and successfully won injunctive relief, ordering State Farm to compensate people and depreciate property in a different way on behalf of all California State Farm shareholders.
So that’s an example of how one person with one problem that affects many people can come to a firm like ours, who’s experienced in class actions, and make a difference for lots of people.
We’ve also represented social workers who were forced to work overtime, unpaid overtime, and made their employers pay for all the back wages where they worked unpaid. We’ve represented other classes of workers in those situations. We’ve represented people who had their data stolen. We’ve represented people who I sued Ford Motor Credit for, years ago, and won a nationwide settlement for folks who were overcharged for being delayed on their car payment. They were being charged a ridiculous amount. The amount of that late fee has to be what it actually costs, but they were being way overcharged.
We’re fortunate to have been able to represent some big groups of people and win them compensation from some big companies and, as important, change the way those companies do business. And so, that’s the power of a class action.
