When Sharks Die

The joke goes what's the difference in a shark and a lawyer? Some people actually care when a shark dies. Now I am a CPA and I happen to have several friends who are lawyers, but I think I understand why that joke is funny. It is because of lawyers like the ones behind the Class Action lawsuit against Motorola, Plantronics and GN Netcom/Jabra. Chances are that if you buy things you have probably received one of those notices in the mail about your options in a Class Action lawsuit. In fact you may not have even realized that you were part of a class that was entitled to reimbursement for some company's wrong doing.

What you also may not know is that a class action lawsuit usually means a huge payday, not for the folks who may have actually been harmed but for the lawyers who represent the class. I think I may have found the all time low of class action suits though. You know the Bluetooth headsets you see folks wearing? I actually worked with a guy once who I swear I never saw without his headset in, I think it was permanently attached. It turns out that if you wear one of those, you might be at risk for hearing loss. Well duh. Who does not know that wearing any type of ear piece may put you at risk for hearing loss. But the lawyers say the manufacturers of Bluetooth headsets should have warned you about the potential for hearing loss. Of course to punish the wrong doing of those manufacturers, the lawyers filed a class action lawsuit.

That is where the settlement comes in. The manufacturers and the lawyers reached an agreement that basically says the manufacturers don't admit they were wrong, but they will donate $100,000 to one or more non-profit organizations that focus on preventing hearing loss and they will add acoustic safety information to their websites and to the product manuals included with new Bluetooth headsets. The notice actually says that there will be NO monetary recovery for Class Members (those are the folks who supposed actually could have been harmed). The kicker is the settlement allows for the lawyers to collect up to $800,000 in attorneys' fees and up to $50,000 in costs. I know what my reaction was to that settlement, but I will let you decide how you feel about these particular sharks..I mean lawyers.

Here is the actual notice in case you potentially suffered hearing loss from using a Bluetooth headset and want to get in on the settlement...oh wait you don't have anything due to you.

Bluetooth Headset Class Action