Blog | Articles | Judge Applied Common Sense in Defending Consumers

By Lillian Howard

  Considering personal injury lawyers they have been at the receiving end of settlements while the clients are left with nothing else but vouchers to use on their next purchase. One judge from Florida has taken the stand for beleaguered consumers. There was a New York City law firm that was criticized by a judge after asking legal fees worth $1 million because it offered the passengers of a cruise ship vouchers that amounted from $10 to $60.


For a class action lawsuit against a cruise line in Fort Lauderdale, a law firm settled it for $2 million after an accusation was faced by the company stating how they increased the port docking charges for unaware passengers. What the firm asked for in the courtroom was $1 million in legal fees. A judge sliced the $1 million request to slightly less than $300,000 and then in a 27 page ruling ordered four firms from southern Florida to divide it amongst themselves. Considering the vouchers given to the 80,000 plaintiffs they managed to corral into the lawsuit, he also ordered for 25 percent of the lawyers' legal fees to be settled in the same manner.

According to the firm's lead lawyer these travel vouchers were of much use to the passengers considering how they were already repeat travelers on the cruise. With vouchers not being sufficient to settle bills what was deserved and desired was cash. Without their knowledge, class action plaintiffs are usually rounded up by personal injury lawyers as parties to multimillion dollar lawsuits according to the judge and their clients end up with awards that are simply useless.

Using common sense, a judge was able to defend consumers against class action lawyers who were rapacious and tort reform advocates applauded the effort. When it comes to travel awards, the vouchers are useless according to the head of a Tallahassee think tank which is a local institute. Nothing is appealing about $10 off of a cruise worth hundreds of dollars. On the other hand class action lawsuits can be positive. Only right is adequate compensation for the genuine victims of a corporation's neglect. Gaining more for themselves from class action lawsuits are the already wealthy while the real victims end up with nothing.

HMOs in Miami are facing a class action lawsuit waged by a group of multi millionaire personal injury lawyers led by a well known Mississippi lawyer. When it comes to their actions the personal injury lawyers know that the price of health care can increase rapidly but this does not mean that patient care will improve. One lawyer made an attempt to speak with Wall Street financial analysts and he wanted to convince them to force a shareholder sell off and even downgrade HMO stocks.

Logic like this is faultless. Out of court settlements are chosen by HMOs as lawsuits cause their stock prices to fall and this is how the lawyers are able to generate millions in settlements even if they do not go to court. According to a Yale University law professor, there is no way that these lawsuits cannot do some damage to the country. Should they emerge victorious they will eliminate the managed care industry. There is no question that this will then lead to an increase in health care costs to all Americans.

Taking note of how many lawsuits against the HMOs are issued, each motivated by greed, the congressional Republicans and Democrats should work to pass a meaningful toil reform act. Considering the average working Americans, they have grown tired of being the ones who are supporting the lawyers when it comes to their retirement funds as they travel on their private jets and fish on their luxury yachts.

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