Norcold $33 million class action lawsuit

If you have substantial damages and can make a case, you are usually better off to opt out.

Class actions get built on one or a few cases where damages are substantial and large numbers of class members with no provable damages, or rather hypothetical damages (e.g. the market value of your purchase is less because a fault impacts product reputation, or you paid more than you should have for something that might be defective, etc). Making yourself a class member can mean you are not eligible to sue for real damages, you get only the nominal settlement that goes to all members. this exclusion varies, lawyers building class actions set various rules.

If you know you have no real damages, expect no real damages, it can be interesting to see how the seettlement comes out. I've gotten discount coupons for future purchases, checks for small amounts, implied warranties extended, but every so often it is just punative (e.g. defendant pays into some state fund supposedly benefiting the class or the general public) or agrees to desist an offeensive practice and the value of the settlement is based on the cost of doing that.

The latter is not unusual for class actions about false advertisng claims, class can be anyone who patronized xxx retailer or fast-food franchise during yyy time window. One I was in included anyone who bought B&S powered lawn equipment during the years the engines had horsepower ratings. Settlement was that they would switch to specifying torque. Nothing for me, a pile of money in penalties and legal fees.

Ah memories? I think my Chev. Suburban had a 6.5 redesigned 350 gas engine made into this fine diesel. Must have replaced the master pump 5 times but the worst was replacing the torque converter 10 times. The glow plugs also had a small rubber hose that took a bee bee inserted in it, I had to carry a tube of bee bee's just to replace them.
Sorry for hy jacking your thread but couldn't resist.

Executive wrote:
IMHO, the value in the lawsuit won't even buy you an extra Thermister.....$33 million will get you maybe a dollar once it's over..The lawyers will get 30 million and the other 3 million will be split amongst the 5 million litigants.....Dennis

I think you are being optimistic. ;)

Not unusual for a company to be charged a large fine for wrongdoing, from some government agency, and NONE of the money is given to the customers. The government collects the money for something that affected consumers. For instance Google received a $22.5 million fine from the FTC for violating online privacy.(as a side note, it only took Google 5 hours to earn the $22.5 Million back)
The Google users received nothing.

There is no doubt that it's the attorney's that make all the money in lawsuits like this. In our town in TN, the local Toyota dealership was caught double taxing it's customers. A class action lawsuit ensued and the outcome was that all the people that were stolen from got free oil changes. The lawyers kept all the money!

The Toyota dealership closed on Covington Pike and opened as Wolfchase Toyota on Germantown Extended. This is a huge dealership! The memory fades quickly but I will never forget how these owners treated their customers.

MM.

I met a couple two years ago in a campground driving a brand new upscale MH and they said that it was bought for them by Norcold. They had their old MH catch fire on them and then the new one burned to the ground when the repaired fridge in that one caught fire at 3AM and they just barely got out the bedroom window in time. They were also able to get the dogs that were sleeping in the front by breaking the windshield out with an axe. They did very nicely by Norcold,or at least the Norcold insurance company in their replacement,but said that they both still have some problems sleeping.

As previously stated by others, the only winners in this type of fiasco are the attorneys. What I do in cases like this is to make a concentrated effort to not buy any thing with products made by the manufacture in question. We recently refused to buy (2) class a mh in the last (6) months because they had the infamous no-cold fridges in them and the dealers would not agree to replace them with something that would not be as much of a potential hazard. Any products associated with the No-Cold companies are off-limits as there are other more reliable options.

Deano56 wrote:

WyoTraveler wrote:
Years ago I can remember a class action suit against Levis. Think I got about $10. Can't even remember why now. :B

did they split at the seams in a untimely manor:B

Or maybe turned a certain part of your anatomy blue!!!:E

WyoTraveler wrote:
Years ago I can remember a class action suit against Levis. Think I got about $10. Can't even remember why now. :B

did they split at the seams in a untimely manor:B

Jim, the Attn. General of your State will have all the information that you need. That is a big part of there job is to help consumers.