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Huge Fortnite Settlement Might Mean $$$ For You (and What's a Class Action Anyway?) - YouTube
Channel: LegalEagle
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have you ever gotten a notice that looks
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like this it looks like a scam right it
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looks like it can't possibly be true
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but this is a notice of a class action
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settlement and there's actually a very
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good chance that this is on the level
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and
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it's possible that you stand to make
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some money off of it or
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at least get something of value but
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you'd be forgiven if you thought that
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this was complete nonsense because i
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mean
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just look at it look lawyers are good at
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writing things down they are not great
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at graphic design
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but the biggest question is what do you
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do when you get a notice like this how
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do you know if it's real
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well as it happens your favorite bird
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lawyer has actually litigated and
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settled countless numbers of class
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action settlements worth hundreds of
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millions of dollars
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so let's talk about the good the bad and
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the extremely ugly
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about class action lawsuits and most
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importantly what you should do if you
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get a notice of class action settlement
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so join me as i spill some legal tea
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sponsored by trade coffee so this is no
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joke i really did receive this notice of
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class action settlement related to an
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epic games lawsuit apparently at some
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point i played either fortnight or
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rocket league and i might be entitled to
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some money or some benefits as a result
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of this settlement it makes sense
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because i will never get that time that
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i spent on fortnight back
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so i would really really like to be
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compensated for that and the things that
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we're going to talk about today will
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relate to this particular
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class action lawsuit but it should apply
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to just about any class action notice
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that you receive
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so let's first talk about what is a
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class action suit because this is one of
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the most misunderstood things in all of
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law
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generally when you have a lawsuit you
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personally sue somebody else because the
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dollar amounts in question are worth
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getting compensation for what you think
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you were wronged over
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but a class action is the opposite of
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that it's where a lot of people were
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probably harmed in very very small ways
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that
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it would never make sense for them to
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individually file suit but instead if
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you wrap
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all of them together the class of people
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all of those people who are in the same
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situation
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can get compensation from a company or
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another individual
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and when you group them all together it
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makes it worthwhile to file suit
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part of it is a punitive reason we don't
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want companies to engage
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in misbehavior that they'd never
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otherwise be punished for
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because simply the individuals would
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never think to hire their own personal
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attorney
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so every state and the federal system
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has laws on the books to allow people to
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file a class action
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and a class action gets this reputation
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that's sort of like rico if you
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file a class action then it's a super
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super serious lawsuit and
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a class action can deal with large
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dollar amounts especially because you're
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aggregating a whole bunch of claims
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but just because it's a class action
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doesn't mean that it's
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necessarily a super scary or super nasty
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lawsuit
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sometimes class actions settle for
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hundreds of millions of dollars
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sometimes they go to trial and sometimes
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they're simply dismissed
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and no one gets anything but the most
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important thing to remember about a
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class action is that it requires a class
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a group of people who suffered a similar
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injury that
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all of their injuries and all the things
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that happened to them are very very
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similar because a court is not going to
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engage in a class action
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if it has to individually look at every
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single person
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if the calculation that goes into the
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damages for each individual person is
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different
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it's probably not likely to give rise to
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a class action the class has to be
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very similar the damages that they
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suffered have to be very similar and it
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has to be easy for the court to
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ascertain
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all of these things together because
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they're dealing with potentially
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hundreds
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thousands and sometimes even millions of
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people so imagine if you will a person
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runs into a crowd and just starts
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punching people now
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it could be that that person has punched
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a hundred people in that crowd and you
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might think that could give rise to a
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class action but probably not
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because maybe one person was punched in
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the stomach one person was punched
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in the face one person suffered a
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broken bone and one person was barely
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damaged at all
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because all of those injuries are so
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fact specific
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that's not the kind of thing that gives
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rise to a class action well on the other
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hand let's look at something that could
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be easily adjudicated as a class action
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let's imagine that there's a big cell
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phone provider
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and let's say that they improperly put a
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one
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dollar fee on your bill that shouldn't
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be there and let's say they bill that
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out to a million customers
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well it's really easy to ascertain those
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people you just look at the spreadsheet
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of what people were charged what fees
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and the damages are all the same it's
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just that one extra fee that shouldn't
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be there that's exactly the kind of fact
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situation that's likely to give rise to
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a valuable and valid class action
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lawsuit so now let's turn to this
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fortnight and rocket league lawsuit and
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use that as an example of what happens
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when a class action has filed and here
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because this court case has already
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gotten to the settlement stage
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all the documents are helpfully
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displayed right on the court settlement
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website
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and yes this website is legitimate it's
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not meant to look good it's just meant
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to be legally sufficient
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so what the plaintiffs originally
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alleged is that the makers of fortnite
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and rocket league
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engaged in some unfair business
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practices and in particular if you dig
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into the complaint what you'll see is
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the plaintiff alleged that a lot of
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minors
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entered into transactions on these video
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games and weren't allowed to back
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out of these transactions because they
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were minors and it also alleges some
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other unfair business practices
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as well as some claims related to random
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loot crates and people spending a
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thousand
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virtual dollars on loot crate related
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things we'll never know if that was in
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fact true or not because one of the
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benefits of settlement is that you don't
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have to go through the expense of
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discovery
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and the whole trial to get to the truth
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of the matter asserted you can just
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settle and say that you're not admitting
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anything or you're not admitting faults
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if you're the defendant
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and here the party's engaged in
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litigation but eventually came to the
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conclusion
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that it was in everyone's best interest
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to settle the claims instead of
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spending money on the litigation now
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when you come to that conclusion
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it's not as easy as just signing on the
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dotted line in fact
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both the plaintiffs and the defendants
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have to go to the court to get the court
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to sign off
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on the settlement itself it has to be
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court approved the court has to make
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sure that
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the class of people are actually being
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fairly compensated and that everything
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else is
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on the level now in addition to that you
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have to determine certain things like
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what is the class
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and here based on the notice it says
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that you're a member of the settlement
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classif at any time between july 1 2015
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and february 25th 2021
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you had a fortnight or rocket league
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account that you used to play either
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game on any device in any mode and a
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exchanged in-game virtual currency for
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any in-game benefit
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or b made a purchase of virtual currency
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or other in-game benefit for use within
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fortnite or rocket league so if you fit
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that description you're entitled to some
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relief
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from the court and if you look at the
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settlement agreement the lawyers
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estimate that there are approximately 12
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million people who have accounts who
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played the games and
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fit that description across both
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fortnite and rocket league
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and now we get to the part that everyone
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is waiting for what could you possibly
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get out of this settlement
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well here the defendants have agreed to
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spend up to 26.5 million dollars
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but that's unfortunately not what the
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class is going to get and here's where
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things get a little bit ugly and where
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i'm afraid we're going to have to spill
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a little bit of legal tea
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because the thing is the plaintiff's
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lawyers are not only negotiating on
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behalf
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of the class of people who are injured
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but they're also negotiating on behalf
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of themselves because they're going to
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get a cut of this payout
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sometimes that payout might be ten
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percent of the class payout sometimes it
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might be fifty or sixty percent of the
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class payout but the good news is that
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the court is supervising all of this and
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they're trying to make sure that the
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lawyers aren't taking too too much from
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the class settlement look
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the lawyers have to get paid if it
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weren't for them these suits would never
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be filed but there's a fine line between
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being compensated fairly for your time
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and also just getting a huge windfall
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but in addition to the plaintiff's
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lawyers there's also the class
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representative
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to be able to file a class action you
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have to have an individual who
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represents
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the rest of the class fairly and that
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person or individuals
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also need to be compensated generally
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they're not paid all that much
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maybe five to ten thousand dollars at
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most and sure that's a lot of money but
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your average class
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representative is going to put in a lot
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of work they're probably going to need
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to be deposed they'll have to
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talk to the lawyers and i wouldn't wish
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that on anyone so
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in the grand scheme of things the payout
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for the class representative is usually
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not a huge amount
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as represented by the total payout so
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how much will the class actually get
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well that depends on how many people
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actually take up the settlement because
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it's a bit of a moving target the more
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people that sign up for the class action
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the less each individual gets and
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believe me the fact that i'm making a
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video about this
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is going to give the lawyers who are in
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charge of this settlement both on the
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defense and the plaintiff side
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a complete heart attack because now i've
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publicized this
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suit and the uptick on the number of
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people who are going to
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ask for a class payment is probably
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going to go through the roof so
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sorry guys so what will any individual
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class member get as a result
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if they participate in this class action
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well you have to look at the settlement
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agreement but they might be able to get
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a maximum of fifty dollars
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depends on what kind of damages you
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suffered or you have the option to
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receive payment in virtual dollars v
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bucks on fortnite or rocket league
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up to a maximum of thirteen thousand
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five hundred which they estimate to be
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worth about a hundred dollars if you
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have to purchase them in game now of
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course the virtual dollars are not
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actually worth a hundred dollars to the
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game manufacturers despite the fact that
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that's how much it might cost you if you
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wanted to buy them
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so they would much rather you take your
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settlement payment in the form of the
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virtual dollars instead of an actual
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cash payment so people who are members
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of this putative class have a couple of
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options they can
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go to this website they can sign up and
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they can say that they actively want the
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additional benefit of either the cash
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or the virtual dollars as part of a
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payment for this
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class action lawsuit people of course
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can do nothing as well
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that's what most people do they look at
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these emails and these notices and they
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think that this is a complete scam
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they don't want to provide their
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personal information and they just
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simply do nothing
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and this particular settlement provides
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that if they don't do anything they will
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at least get a thousand virtual dollars
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theoretically also you could write in to
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the settlement administrator and you
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could say that you don't want to
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participate in this
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settlement agreement and you can exclude
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yourself from the class the main benefit
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there is that
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regardless of what happens in the class
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you might be able to file suit on
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your own behalf but you'd never want to
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do that because the dollar amounts are
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way way too small and additionally you
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can also attend the hearing
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on this settlement agreement because
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right now we're in the preliminary
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approval stage the court has looked at
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this settlement
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both the plaintiffs and the defendants
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are advocating that the court should
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approve this settlement
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but they need more information they need
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to know how many people are going to
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sign up for the class
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they need to know how many people object
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how many people don't want to be
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included
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in this class because if there are too
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many people who reject the settlements
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then the court might have to tell the
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parties to go back to the drawing board
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and here's one of the craziest things
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sometimes if too many people sign up for
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the benefits of the settlement agreement
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it kind of blows up the whole deal we
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saw this in the equifax class action
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where
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they offered up to 150 per person whose
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privacy rights were violated when
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equifax completely screwed the pooch in
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terms of user privacy
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and then so many people signed up to get
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the 150 dollars it broke the bank and
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the parties had to go back to the
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drawing board again and theoretically
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since
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i'm publicizing this video that might
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happen here too
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yeah sorry about that but effectively
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this is the same process that everyone
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goes through in class action settlements
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it starts with notifying the potential
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class usually through email but maybe
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it's through the telephone
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using these janky notices that look like
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a scam
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then you have to go to these websites
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that look like they came out of geo
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cities in
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1994 and you then have to provide your
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personal information to sign up for the
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class on the hopes
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that you'll get some sort of payout from
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the settlement agreement and of course
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then you have to wait for the court to
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approve the final settlements
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and then maybe a year or two later you
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might actually get a
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check in the mail or some virtual
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dollars deposited
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into your virtual bank account it takes
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a very very long time
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and while we spilled the tea about class
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actions i'd never spill my cup of coffee
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because i get my coffee from trade
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after all a lawyer is only as good as
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analysis
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class actions coffee whatever leave your
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objections in the comments and
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check out this other legal eagle video
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here i think you'll really like it so
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click on this video or i'll see you
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in court
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