The Bartz book authors’ Class Counsel informed Judge Alsup of circulating his preservation order related to their communication to class members about opt outs and claims.
This means they circulated the Judge’s order to:
- the so-called Authors’ Coordination Counsel (Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP and Fairmark Partners LLP),
- Publishers’ Coordination Counsel (Edelson PC and Oppenheim + Zebrak, LLP),
- retained public relations people (Shape Advocacy),
- Industry Working Group members and related outfits (Association of American Publishers, Association of University Presses, Authors Guild, Independent Publishers Guild, International Publishers Association, Novelists, Inc., The Publishers Association Limited, Publishers’ Licensing Services, Romance Writers of America, Inc., Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Society of Authors, Textbook and Academic Authors Association, Writers House, Writers’ Union), and
- anyone else class counsel or defendant (or defense counsel) has retained or used to communicate to class members about claims and/or opt-outs.
Obviously, the Bartz Class Counsel are showing urgency with the court’s order.
As I mentioned in my prior post (see below), I am a bit surprised the process for how class members opt out of the settlement appears to be have been not as heavily vetted as other aspects of the claims process, such as all the notices.
It’s also surprising to me that there apparently are not best or standard practices for the mechanics of claims and opt outs for a class. Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the sense that the mechanics for this class settlement are bespoke, if not starting from scratch.
This is not to fault the Class Counsel, but to wonder why we apparently do not have settled best or standard practices for class settlement distributions. If we do, it definitely doesn’t seem that way!
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