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Thread: Class Action Suit

  1. #1
    God/dess UtahMike's Avatar
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    Default Class Action Suit

    I used to be a forum leader on AOL, and I've been invited, with all the other former community leaders/remote staff, to join a class action suit against AOL. The basis of the suit is that we were treated like employees, had to keep regular hours, take inservice training, supervise other staff, make weekly reports of time and work, etc. etc., blah, blah, blah.

    The fact is that we WERE treated like employees, and more so the longer we did it, but we all knew up front that we were not going to be paid, and we did it because it was a hobby.

    Another former CL and I have been discussing this, and she is afraid to join the suit. She thinks that, if AOL wins, we will end up having to pay AOL instead of AOL having to pay us.

    My wife was in a class action suit over her breat implants, but that suit was won and she received a settlement. But I have no idea what would happen if we lost.

    Has anyone ever been in a class action suit and lost? What happened? Did you have to pay court costs/attorneys fees? I would not mind sticking it to AOL if I could, because at the end they buried our forum so nobody could find us, gave us no support, and then shut us down due to lack of use. But not enough to take a chance on having to pay them thousands of dollars.

  2. #2
    God/dess VegasPrincess's Avatar
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    What? No lol you won't owe them money. And it sounds like a ton of people are suing...

    The only thing they could do is file a counter suit against you, but the odds of them doing that aren't really very high. I mean, what would they sue you for? You were a volunteer. I say fucking go for it.

    Stick it to the man!

    The worst thing that you would happen is that you would have to pay court costs... but it sounds like you are filing with a ton of other people, so it couldn't be that much.
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  3. #3
    TheSexKitten
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    AOL sucks. No helpful advice here... I just would love to see you and all those people fuck em over a bit.

  4. #4
    Jay Zeno
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    Class action suits are a means of punishing alleged bad acts of corporations by getting them to pay a lot of money to lawyers and a little money to the allegedly injured parties. The more allegedly injured parties that the lawyers can find, the more leverage they have to favorably settle the lawsuit, but the thinner go the award to the litigants.

    Me, if I don't feel injured, I don't want to litigate about it. I don't need someone telling me I have been injured, and therefore we can both make money from it, if I don't feel that way. I can just see a deposition or interrogatories where I'm asked, "How have you been injured? Details, please," and me mouthing like a fish, mutely. But that's just me.

  5. #5
    God/dess Rhiannon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    I was involved in a Class Action Suit back in 2002. It had been going on for a year or two before I got my invite. I worked for Rent-A-Center and had been laid off (2 days before Thanksgiving). Supposedly they had "laid off" 2 people from every store, nationwide. Well, come to find out.. ALL of the people who were laid off at this time were women. Also, women had been turned down for employment with them. I was pretty much reduced to doing office work and things like that, when in all reality I was more than capable of being out on the road, delivering and picking up merchandise. But, I was not allowed.

    So I put that in my written statement, and also stated it when I spoke to the Class Action Lawyers when they called me.

    We had no idea when they'd settle, but that they were indeed going to settle. In the end, they were ordered to pay $48 million dollars. That would be allotted between 5500 women (yep, 5500 were involved in this. It was HUGE). They were also ordered to pay the court costs of the women who started the suit, and that was not included in the $48 Million--it was additional.

    I ended up getting my chunk of the settlement in May of 2003, just a few dollars shy of $8000. I even scanned the check into my PC and saved it. I'll dig it up and post it.. LOL

    In the Settlement, they were also ordered to hire 10% of the women from the lawsuit. I received an offer for re-employment, but I turned it down.

  6. #6
    Jay Zeno
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    Then I'll back off from a portion of what I said, which was overly broad anyway. Yes, injured parties can do OK. I was thinking of many instances where, simply, they don't get squat, individually. But I wouldn't mind a check for $8K myself.

    8K x 5.5K = 44M, so I'm assuming the lawyers got $4M? Which is a lot less than I would've expected.

    And in your case, Rhi, you were obviously injured. I didn't get the impression that Mike felt all that injured, hence my comments in that vein. But if I were injured, I wouldn't mind joining the class.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    Quote Originally Posted by UtahMike View Post
    I used to be a forum leader on AOL, and I've been invited, with all the other former community leaders/remote staff, to join a class action suit against AOL. The basis of the suit is that we were treated like employees, had to keep regular hours, take inservice training, supervise other staff, make weekly reports of time and work, etc. etc., blah, blah, blah.

    The fact is that we WERE treated like employees, and more so the longer we did it, but we all knew up front that we were not going to be paid, and we did it because it was a hobby.
    It seems odd to me to sue over this...because people knew it was volunteer work, and accepted it as such. I've volunteered at various agencies - like rape crisis centers - had to sign on for shifts, take trainings, etc. We weren't paid, and knew we wouldn't be up-front. I can't imagine going back and suing because I wasn't paid for something that I signed on for as a volunteer. If the obligations get too heavy, one can quit.

  8. #8
    God/dess Rhiannon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Class Action Suit

    True. I was told that I couldn't do a job that I was fully capable of (and, was also part of my job description at the time I was hired, too). The only requirement was that I could lift 50lbs. I could lift twice that and demonstrated it quite a few times moving things to the sales floor.

    It's funny too, because even the women who were still employed there were in on the Suit, including my former boss. She received only $1000 more than I did because she chose not to claim a lot of the other reasons why she was discriminated against--One being working as a store manager for 16 years and being passed over time and time again for Market Manager when she was more than qualified--always losing the position to a man.

    I dug up the pic.. Heh. We had so much fun with this check. Delia was due to be born in June--so this came just before Mother's Day. We went to Walmart on Mother's Day and had a freaking blast, grabbing anything and everything we wanted. We also had a bit of fun with some of it before she got here too (10 days before she was due---so that money came in at just the right time!)


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