No. A potential litigant receives a cheap mailer card in the postal mail that states a class action lawsuit has been filed against X and the named postal recipient is indicated to be a member of the class unless they choose to OPT OUT by notifying the law firm etc etc etc.
Most mailer recipients throw the card in the trash because they are not going to take the time to write the law firm to opt out.
Because recipients do not respond, the law firm goes ahead and deems them opting in, and includes them in the class.
So it’s very likely that more than 90% and usually much more than 90% threw their mailer in their trash and they don’t care what happens because the payouts are usually so small as to not make it worth the time to be involved.
Usually state laws limit the amount that lawyers can pay themselves from a class-action to say about 15% to 25%. Therefore, the larger the class, the larger the payout to the lawyers, so they are motivated to make the class as large as they can even though more than 90% of the class doesn’t give a damn.
Further, any unclaimed funds from a class-action settlement are put into safe-keeping by the plaintiff lawyers who collect interest and fees on the unclaimed accounts. It’s almost always a racket for the lawyers. It has the one benefit in that it keeps some companies honest and that’s about it.
OK, I understand that. I’ve received a couple of these type things (not for TU) over the years and you are right ... they went straight into the trash. In one case, I think I later received a check for $5 or so from Netflix because I was part of a class action lawsuit that I didn’t intentionally join.
But my question is this ... if 30,000 of these cards went out and 90% of the folks didn’t bother but were signed up automatically, why isn’t the number of litigants 27,000 rather than the 5,000 reported? Where did the other 22,000 go?
Which brings me back to my original question -— how many people actually signed up for Trump University? If 5,000 of a million are dissatisfied, then their 98% satisfaction rate isn’t too far out of line. But that depends entirely on the number of people who took the course.