Washington DC-based lawyer Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel earned his law degree from Yale Law School. Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel serves as a partner in Kaliel PLLC and is currently involved in actively litigating several national class action cases.
A class action lawsuit is a type of legal proceeding where multiple plaintiffs have similar legal complaints against a defendant. Often, if the plaintiffs win the case, settlements in the form of money are equally distributed to each plaintiff (class member) by the court.
While the court will make an attempt to inform all members about the settlement so they can claim their money, some members may fail to send in a claim on their entitled settlement. In such a situation, the court may take a flexible decision regarding what to do with the unclaimed settlements, such as:
Refund: The court may decide to return the unclaimed settlement to the defendant. Often, when the defendant is a manufacturer, the court may require the defendant to lower the price it charges for its product, to eliminate chances of the defendant gaining income from the refund.
Consumer trust fund: Since the point of every class action is protecting wronged consumers, a customer trust fund may be initiated with an unclaimed settlement. Customer trust funds employ attorneys to research class action law and help plaintiffs file class action lawsuits.
Donation: Sometimes, unclaimed settlements are donated to charity organizations. Several eligible charities may receive a portion of unclaimed settlements.
Unclaimed Property: The settlement may be kept in the state's record of unclaimed property for a limited amount of time before the state keeps the unclaimed money permanently. Since the name of the class action recipient is known, he or she can send in claims to the state treasurer before the specified time passes.
A class action lawsuit is a type of legal proceeding where multiple plaintiffs have similar legal complaints against a defendant. Often, if the plaintiffs win the case, settlements in the form of money are equally distributed to each plaintiff (class member) by the court.
While the court will make an attempt to inform all members about the settlement so they can claim their money, some members may fail to send in a claim on their entitled settlement. In such a situation, the court may take a flexible decision regarding what to do with the unclaimed settlements, such as:
Refund: The court may decide to return the unclaimed settlement to the defendant. Often, when the defendant is a manufacturer, the court may require the defendant to lower the price it charges for its product, to eliminate chances of the defendant gaining income from the refund.
Consumer trust fund: Since the point of every class action is protecting wronged consumers, a customer trust fund may be initiated with an unclaimed settlement. Customer trust funds employ attorneys to research class action law and help plaintiffs file class action lawsuits.
Donation: Sometimes, unclaimed settlements are donated to charity organizations. Several eligible charities may receive a portion of unclaimed settlements.
Unclaimed Property: The settlement may be kept in the state's record of unclaimed property for a limited amount of time before the state keeps the unclaimed money permanently. Since the name of the class action recipient is known, he or she can send in claims to the state treasurer before the specified time passes.
