A delay has been ordered by a Federal Judge in the class action lawsuit entitled Kaufman et al. v. American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. The case (KaufmanClassActionSettlement.com) is in the jurisdiction of the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois. The delay was ordered because only 1% of eligible class members filed claims for the settlement. The Judge feels that American Express should have came up with a better way of notifying potential Class Members. The situation is so bad that the Judge in the case has appointed an expert in class action notification to facilitate the process. Of the total settlement fund of $4,000,000 only $41,510 of it was claimed! Judge Gottschall states “Even granted that some of the 70 million cards were bought by bulk purchasers, the proportion of benefits claimed to cards sold is pitifully low,” Gottschall wrote “If the court were to grant final approval to the settlement as the facts now stand, almost 99 percent of the settlement fund reserved for class member claims would go unused. Most class members would receive precisely nothing in exchange for their surrender of ‘any and all claims…’
Obviously this Judge has some common sense. Judge Gottschall warned AMEX that if they do not develop a way to inform class members the court will be forced to do it for them. The old deadline to file claims was March 2, 2012 but that will now be extended. A new date has not been set as of today but please check back for more information in this case. Please visit the settlement administrators web portal for more information.
