Settlement Surrender

byAngelWing

226 followers

8 years ago

First Was Calvin Klein

When I first heard the words "class action lawsuit" I was 16 years old working as a floor specialist at Calvin Klein. My sister in law was the manager, and a newly hired manager was caught for stealing and taking identity stealing information from the employee data system. She left her journal at work one day, and of course we read it to make sure it was indeed our manager's book.

She was of course fired, the same day she was caught red handed with a box of shipped inventory from the store. She didn't get in much trouble, hearing later that her daddy was a police chief in another town. Figures.

Funny my mom's employee from years ago robbed our store, making up a fake character that supposedly robbed her at gunpoint. But because she was a prior police caudate she too was let off for her false report and attempted come-up. Figures.

I will be writing about the currupted system of authority in my country, especially for those who have no idea what its like to live in a wannabe Hitler ran Nazi-ville horror story. But I will now stay on topic with my settlement surrender story.

Calvin Klein sent the employees and me a letter informing us that our identities had been compromised, and a class action lawsuit was present. I don't remember receiving a form that was to be submitted if you wanted compensation from the lawsuit, but my sister in law, who also received the letter, told me to sign it and submit in back through the mail.

Not realizing the importance, nor the time allowance I had to submit my claim, I strike out after hearing of the benifits of my potential award. I arrive to work one day, and my sis has a Chester the Cat grin on her face as she asks me if I received my check from the settlement.

"Aww, that's right, I still have to send it back! How much did you get?"

She gives me this "too bad, so sad" chuckle and says, "too late! I told you that you had to send it back, you could have gotten $550 bucks like I just did."

"What!!? It's seriously too late? I get nothing? That's bullcrap! This sucks!"

I was over it pretty quickly, since I wasn't broken by money that I wasn't even expecting, but I definitely was quick to learn that I had to grow responsibility with my mail replies.

I wonder why they had sent a 16 year old mail that required responsibility. I thought how Calvin Klein should have sent the mail to an adult for the employees that were minors. I was not yet exposed to the world of sending and receiving of mail, and plus, I didn't know what my mom did with my mail and I probably never even saw it due to my inabilities to have access to our locked mailbox.

Oh well. You win some you loose some… I was sure to never forget about claim form submitting, and class action lawsuit benefits from here on out.

Next Came Dr. Catfish

My next class action lawsuit experience came years later. I was a victim of Dr. Catfish. The nightmare plastic surgeries I endured turned out to be by a gynecologist that wanted to play operation on victims that believed he was a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon as he stated on his website.

After reliving the nightmare as I was required to send in photos and dates involving my surgeries, I was denied representation by the lawyer in charge of 54 women's cases against Dr. Catfish, yet they wouldn't accept me? Where's the class action information or notice?

I researched other lawyers and attorney offices and was so exhausted and frustrated and I had to let it go and give up on receiving any compensatrion that could have paid for a real surgeon to fix what Dr. Catfish did. Although money cannot fix the nightmare and pain from multiple surgeries and the pain medication dependency and withdraws that I barely escaped from, it sure would have been nice to stop living my life with a disability and a constant state of worry due to possible silicone poisoning or internal damage or possible death that it may cause me!

No class action lawsuit suit was found. I had no one that could inform me on how to find it, if there was one (which the news said their was and I even contacted that reporter) and I had not received any forms to submit my claim. It was hopeless and disappointing.

One Account Settlement From College Card

This Class Action Lawsuit called the Higher One Account Settlement, was in place due to the college financial aid debit card that I received the first year I attended college. I was new to financial aid and the entire college experience and didn't yet know how things worked.

I had to pay out of pocket for my books and then when my financial aid came through, that was supposed to pay back my personally spent money. The card was always giving me issues when I would fill up my tank, and the transaction fees as well as withdrawal fees, was sucking my college money dry!

I was constantly confused on the card's limitations and daily withdrawal amount, and I was putting out more personal money to make up for the lack of financial aid funds that was getting penalized by fees and transaction costs.

I ended up dropping a class because I could not afford what I had originally planned on being covered by the government. Turns out, I wasn't the only one that had issues with this card, for there was an outcome of a class action lawsuit.

I did not receive awareness of this settlement by posted mail, instead they decided to inform members via email. I happened to be going through my spam one day when I noticed it and gained knowledge of the $15,000,000 lawsuit.

I was now prepared to take action and submit my claim form. I was not going to miss out on yet another settlement. I was sure to dot my i's and cross my t's and I even went out of my way to get in touch with whoever was receiving these claim forms and assure that my claim was submitted on time, accounted for, and not lost in the mail.

The instructions on the notice informed me of how much money went to lawyers and court fees and then depending on the number of students that submit their claim out of the 350,000 possible members, a formula was calculated based on those numbers.

I informed many friends that attended college that same year and dealt with the One Account card. I talked to at least a dozen neighbors, friends and old classmates to see if they had filed their claim and to serve as a mentor from my past mistake. 15 million was a way larger amount than the Calvin Klein lawsuit, so i figured I had a chance at a couple hundred dollars of bonus mula coming my way.

Although I insisted to many friends that they mail in their claim, none of them did. I was disappointed in their care less attitudes, yet I figured it was better for less members involved, the less people to split up this 15 million with.

The notice gave a date for which you should receive the check that they mail out to the eligible members that submitted their claim. Since this time I was on top of my game, I immediately called when my check never showed up.

I asked the lady from the attorney's office that handled the case, how many students out of the 350,000 even replied to the claims? She could't tell me nor could she tell me over the phone how much the check was made out for. She reissued my check that was probably never sent in the first place, hoping that i would forget so the attorneys could greed their profits from the suit.

I got my check. Wow, how does this make sense? Even when I calculated their stupid formula based method with who gets what amounts, it should have been way more. $14.07. Thats how much I benefited. Ha! Figures. What a joke.

Let's top this story off with the letter I opened just last week. My lawyer that I sought out for a motorcycle injury I was in a couple years ago (and was royally screwed by and lost my job over on top of my injury) sent me a letter informing me that they are dropping my case, which they took on for me two years ago!

Ouch. Guess I get no compensation for that one. Guess I look on the bright side?

Class Action Lawsuit Filing Attempts

A little over a year ago, I attempted to start a class action lawsuit against the new and or prior owners of the apartment complex that I was living in. Others that lived in the complex had talked about signing a petition for the wrongdoings of the apartment owners that were obvious lawsuit worthy offences. The words class action came from many different neighbors I talked with about the concerning happenings around the apartment.

I took it upon myself to find an attorney that would file class action lawsuits. I found out with all my researching that I could possibly be a representative and therefore could gain more benefits from a lawsuit verdict.

I talked to a man that explained to me the complex paperwork that is involved in starting a class action. He told me how hard it would be for me to find an attorney to take on this matter.

He also discussed that "back in the day" members from any class action lawsuits would receive benefits without submitting a claim, and notices went out only to filled out and returned if you declined your membership's benefits.

Wow, funny how things change. Nothing in life can be left easy. At least not for me. I put more time into seeking an attorney capable of class action lawsuit filing. Hate to say I failed yet again and I eventually thew in the towel. I waved the white flag of surrender. That's all folks.