False Advertising

[Tom Winship]

I've received a notice in the mail about a class action based on over stating the horsepower of gasoline lawn mowers. Almost every manufacturer is named and the "entitlement" is $35 to $50 per machine (I believe).

Has anyone else received these? Is it a scam or straight up? (I believe this type of suit, if as I understand it, are counterproductive and won't participate anyway, just curious. Although, I did notice that my mower was mowing like it was only 4.6375 HP instead of the rated 5.0 HP.)

[Mike Archambeau]

I also recieved a notice. Why not go ahead and participate. This kind of litigation is what forces the truth to be told in the future.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Opportunistic lawyer who has no idea if your mower is making less or more than the rated HP.

You can ignore it, or join and maybe get a few dollars. You may be included in the suit by default anyway. If the mfgrs spit out a few bucks to make him go away he'll collect the settlement, apply it towards his costs and send you nothing.

Any time a mfgr makes a statement of fact, there's a lawyer at the courthouse filing a suit. That's why we see "Up to X...." in so much advertising. Just the way it goes......

http://www.xomba.com/wwwlawnmowerclasscom_lawn_mower_class_action_lawsu it_settlement_submit_claim_form
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[Mitchell Andrus]

I also recieved a notice. Why not go ahead and participate. This kind of litigation is what forces the truth to be told in the future.

I agree, but a simple "Up to 5hp" in the literature and the sticker on the shroud will suffice too. So, now we know more than we did before?

Kind of like when we see "may contain peanuts" on everything (including jars of peanut butter). We'll never know if there are peanuts in there because in might and they now need to cover their butts.
.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Many of these are class action cash cows that, if successful, eventually provide the participants pennies and the attorneys a nice bundle for fees. In the end, neither justice nor equity is served. These guys make a mockery out of civil suits.:mad:

[Tom Winship]

Many of these are class action cash cows that, if successful, eventually eventually provide the participants pennies and the attorneys a nice bundle for fees. In the end, neither justice nor equity is served. These guys make a mockery out of civil suits.:mad:

Exactly......... The statement even says that "there is no safety violation".

[Tom Godley]

About fifteen years ago a friend of mine at that time purchased new business cards for his small law office. Listed on the cards along with his other services was "class action".

I inquired: What class action lawsuit had he been involved?

He tells me ........ none so far .......... We are looking !!! A good class action is like winning the lottery in the legal world.

[Glenn Vaughn]

Many of these are class action cash cows that, if successful, eventually eventually provide the participants pennies and the attorneys a nice bundle for fees. In the end, neither justice nor equity is served. These guys make a mockery out of civil suits.:mad:

According to the website for the class action suit the total cash value of the suit is 65 million dollars. The amount paid to the lawyers is outline in question 18:


"The Court will decide how much Class Counsel will be paid. Class Counsel has not submitted a request for attorneys’ fees
or litigation expenses at this time; however, when Class Counsel seeks fees, they will not ask for more than one-third, plus
interest, of the value of the Cash Benefits and no more than $14 million for the value of the Warranty Benefits. Class
Counsel will also request that $1,000 be paid to each of the Class Representatives who helped the lawyers on behalf of the
whole Class. Class Counsel will also seek to be reimbursed from the Settlements for their litigation expenses."

One third is 21.6 million; add in the 14 million for the MTD portion and the total is 35.6 million dollars.

All this suit will accomplish is cause an increase in the price of lawnmowers.

[George Sanders]

I've always liked Shakespeare's line: "The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers."

[Bonnie Campbell]

I received one of these notices in the mail too. It was filed in my round bin. I don't believe in 'class action' suits. Look up Jefferson County MS if you want to see excessive class action suits. I'll bet they made more multimillion dollar lawyers than any other county in the country.

What gets me is how happy people can be to jump on the bandwagon, even if they themselves have had no problem with something. As in the lawn mower.... it cuts my lawn, motor goes fast enough for the job. If a company says 'up to' that seems to cover their butts for lower hp, doesn't it?

I'll admit, some companies NEED watch dog (hoping for riches) lawyers, but this one isn't right. JMHO

[Tom Winship]

What gets me is how happy people can be to jump on the bandwagon, even if they themselves have had no problem with something. As in the lawn mower.... it cuts my lawn, motor goes fast enough for the job.

Not to be politically incorrect, but isn't that called "entitlement". Just because it is there. My mother made me carry a rock back to a neighbor that I had picked up (without asking) when I was 5 years old. Mom's reasoning? "It isn't yours".

[Pat Germain]

I agree the vast majority of class action lawsuits are bunk. And the lawn mower suit sounds like bunk. But sometimes they are for a good reason. Mrs. Pat received a small cash settlement from a John Hancock whole life insurance policy she had.

We bought this policy when she was about 22 years old. The salesman spewed all kinds of nonsense about how the policy would increase in value, we could borrow against, use it to send our kids to college, use it for retirement, yada, yada, yada. I didn't believe any of it. But since my wife was was so young, the whole life policy was very cheap.

Well, here we are almost thirty years later and that policy isn't worth a plug nickel. It has no cash value. None. Apparently, some people were banking their retirement on those whole life policies and were mighty steamed when they found them worthless. So they sued. And they won.

From the lawsuit, Mrs. Pat got some stock in another insurance company which John Hancock merged with, or something. She sold it and had to pay capital gains. So, here again, the lawyers got paid big bucks, but nobody else did. However, I doubt the new John Hancock company promises whole life customers all the rosey dividends like they used to.

[Bonnie Campbell]

Granted, there are SOME class action suits that have merit. As in a lone dog not being able to afford hiring lawyers on his/her own to go after a big company. My point is if lawyers are hunting things down to line THEIR pockets, the judicial system needs an overhaul.

[Pat Germain]

Granted, there are SOME class action suits that have merit. As in a lone dog not being able to afford hiring lawyers on his/her own to go after a big company. My point is if lawyers are hunting things down to line THEIR pockets, the judicial system needs an overhaul.

Can't argue that!

[Paul Atkins]

Got one too. I also got one years ago for my Chevy truck with twin tanks. Started out we would get it fixed, then we were going to get cash, finally we 'got' a 1000 dollar deduction if we bought a new truck over 35 grand. Huh? Not expecting anything for my junker Toro. The actual problem was not the HP rating, just bad engineering and cheap parts.

[Mick David]

I also recieved a notice. Why not go ahead and participate. This kind of litigation is what forces the truth to be told in the future.


Why not? Because this kind of litigation will end up being a 'tax' (i.e., another hidden cost of doing business) that will drive up the cost of every lawnmower I buy for the rest of my life.

This garbage needs to stop. We need 'loser pays' laws here. The only thing worse than the lottery is having a lottery where the tickets have no cost.

[Van Huskey]

I've always liked Shakespeare's line: "The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers."


As a holder of a JD and a BA in English Lit I love hearing this oft quipped quote! It actually means JUST THE OPPPOSITE of what most people that quote it mean to say .

The quote "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" comes from Shakespeare's Henry VI part 2 and is from the character Dick the Butcher. Dick didn't make his living cutting up meat but was a ruthless killer who was also rather funny and provided the classic comic relief Ole Willie was known for. He utters the phrase in his role as a plotter of treason. In the end the point of the qoute is that lawlessness has a much easier ability to thrive in an environment without lawyers.

[Jerome Hanby]

I received one, but I disagree that this is the kind of lawsuit that has any "positive" benefit. Where do people think this money comes from? Company xyz is not losing 50 million dollars, they are passing 50 million dollars worth of expense to their customers. If you want a positive benefit have a very public prosecution of the individual(s) that are determined to be at fault (assuming there has been a violation of the law) and hand out some draconian sentences (think Enron).

[Bill Borchardt]

Read (or listen to audio tapes/disks) John Grisham's novel "King of Torts." Although a fiction novel it gives you an idea of the class action legal lottery. (How much the lawyers get if they win, and how little the class participants get.)

We need lawyers.
We are a nation of laws, and need laws to protect and correct; need laws to govern behavior (especially bad behavior); and we need lawyers to help execute our system of laws.

Although most lawyers are honorable some are simply legal scallywags.
- No different than lousy folks in other professions who do what's legal, but not necessarily what's ethical or "right." (Think unethical Wall Street types, people who run up ungodly debt knowing they will declare bankruptcy, etc.)

Billbo
Smyrna, GA