I won?

Last year, I received a check for $1.00 from ATT. This was my share of a legal settlement for overcharges somewhere in the past. I'm sure it cost them a lot more than a dollar just to get the check to me.

More recently I received a letter from Edward Jones letting me know that, as compensation for their misdeeds, I would receive my share of a class action settlement. All authorized current customers (my account, inherited from my late sister, is inactive) "are entitled to receive three credit vouchers. The first credit voucher for $6.74 is valid Aug. 1, 2008- July 31, 2009. . ." Two more vouchers valid in subsequent years, redeemable only in those years, would follow.

I researched the terms of this settlement (http://www.secinfo.com/d1zJxf.u1E3.d.htm)
and it seems that of the $55,000,000 award, $28,000,000 was assigned to the plaintiff's lawyers, and that $6,000,000 was assigned back to Edward Jones itself for its cost. Of the remaining $21,000,000 the cost of escrow and administration would be deducted.

Well, you get the idea. My award is laughable, and since my account is inactive it will never be used. I suspect this is the case for most of the individual investors in this settlement.

As usual, the American sense of justice has been hijacked by the lawyers, courts, and Judges. There is probably a place for these class action suites, but there should be a way for the injured (if there are actually "injured" parties at stake) to be the focus of the award and not the lawyers.

My solution: the plaintiff lawyers should never receive more than some percent (10%?) of the total award, and in any such settlement with vouchers, the lawyers get paid with the same vouchers as the plaintiffs.