If you owned land next to or under a railroad right of way where Telecommunications Facilities have been installed by Sprint you could be a part of the Amunrud v. Sprint Communications class action lawsuit.  The settlement includes only those who owned land in the following Montana counties: Broadwater, Custer, Dawson, Gallatin, Granite, Jefferson, Lake, Lewis & Clark, Missoula, Park, Powell, Prairie, Rosebud, Sanders, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Treasure, Wibaux, or Yellowstone.  The Landowners claim that Sprint not only had to obtain permission to install the fiber-optic, copper, or coaxial cables from the railroads but from the landowners as well.. which they did not.

Sprint denies all wrong doing and claims that the railroads had the right to allow Sprint to install Telecommunications Facilities without the need for further permission from landowners.  But Sprint has agreed to a settlement in order to avoid a costly court trial.  The settlement amount has yet to be determined but will be in the form of cash payments to those who qualify.  The amount of money any given class member will receive under the settlement terms will depend on:

• How many feet of property you own next to the railroad right of way,
• How long you owned the property,
• How the railroad got its property rights, and
• How many people co-own the property with you.

A settlement fairness hearing will be held at United States District Court for the District of Montana, located at 316 North 26th Street, Billings, MT 59101, in Courtroom No. III on February 3, 2012 at 10am to determine if the settlement is fair and reasonable.  Claim forms will be mailed to identified class members.  If you do not get a claim form but believe you’re a class member you will have to register With the Claims Administrator page at the class website shown below.

www.MontanaFiberSettlement.com

The Honest Kombucha Alcohol Content class action lawsuit is entitled Scott Witthoff v. Honest Tea, Inc and alleges that Honest Tea falsely advertised their Kombucha Tea product.  Honest Tea claimed that the product contained less than 0.5% alcohol when the tea actually contained up to 2-3% alcohol in some cases!  The beverage was marketed as a non-alcoholic drink or tea when it contained as much or more alcohol than some beers! 

The lawsuit settlement includes a full refund or up to $7 in coupons to users who purchased Honest Kombucha Tea from October 29, 2006 and October 3, 2011.   A full refund will be provided to customers who submit a valid claim form and have proof of purchase.  A coupon will be provided to customers who don’t have proof of purchase.  They will receive a $1 coupon for each $1 they declare to have paid.  A settlement fairness hearing is scheduled for 3pm on 01/06/11.  The hearing will be held at Department 305, San Francisco Superior Court, 400 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 if you wish to attend. 

Other important dates are as follows:

January 24, 2012 Claim Form Deadline
(postmarked)
December 9, 2011 Exclusion Deadline
(received)
December 9, 2011 Objection Deadline
(filed and received)

You can file a claim form online or by mail. Please note that Acrobat Reader is Required to download the Claim Form which will be in PDF format.

Honest Tea denies all wrong doing in the case and maintains that if there were instances where the beverages exceeded 0.5% alcohol, such instances were exceedingly rare and sporadic.

www.HonestKombuchaSettlement.com

The Milgram v. Chase Bank Class Action Lawsuit revolves around claims that Chase Bank offered some customer cardholders a promotional annual percentage rate on balance transfers and short-term convenience check loans until a specified “statement opening date,” but did not adequately inform consumers when the promotional interest rate would cease to apply.  The case is styled Milgram v. Chase Bank, USA and is in the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Class members are defined as anyone who was offered a “promotional check or balance transfer offer and was a Chase credit card customer between the dates of January 15, 2006 and February 28, 2010 with a promotional interest rate stated in the offer as effective “until your [Month/Year] statement opening date” and, after acceptance, you incurred finance charges on the resulting promotional balance at a non-promotional rate because of expiration of the promotional interest period you may be a part of this class action settlement” via MilgramSettlement.com.

All claim forms are due no later than November 3, 2011.  Claims can be filed online or by mail.  To file online please have the Claim ID and Personal Identification Number on hand.  This information can be found on your postcard notice.  To file by mail please go here to download the form and mail it to:

 Milgram v. Chase Bank Settlement Administrator
PO Box 808061
Petaluma, CA 94975-8061

The claim form MUST be postmarked by Novemebr 3rd 2011.   Please note that in order to view the document you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

www.MilgramSettlement.com

Bank Of America is loosing customers and fast.  Class action lawsuits come and go but this has to be one of the most detrimental on a company we have seen.  The lawsuit is entitled Checking Account Overdraft Litigation and is in the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.  The case revolves around claims that BOA charged excessive overdraft fees to some of its customers.

Class members of this lawsuit are described as anyone who “had a Bank of America consumer checking and/or savings account that you could access with a Bank of America debit card, anytime between January 1, 2001 and May 24, 2011 AND were charged one or more overdraft fees as a result of Bank of America’s practice of posting debit card transactions from highest to lowest dollar amount” according to the BofA Overdraft Settlement website.  Bank Of America denies all wrong doing but has agreed to a settlement in order to avoid any further court cost.  A settlement fund of $410 million dollars has been created to reimburse the class members. 

A fairness hearing will be held at the United States District Court for Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, located at the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building, 99 Northeast Fourth Street, Miami, FL 33132 on 11/07/11 to determine if the settlement amount is fair.  You do not have to attend the settlement hearing in order to receive a settlement.  If you do nothing and are an eligible class member you will still receive a settlement as long as you don’t exclude yourself.  The amount any individual class member in the lawsuit cannot be determined at this time.

www.bofaoverdraftsettlement.com