Facebook(s fb) and class action lawyers thought they had a deal over "Sponsored Stories," a type of advertising in which Facebook had users endorse products without their permission. But a federal judge has now kiboshed the $20 million settlement that would have resolved the matter.
In an order handed down in San Francisco on Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg claimed that the payment amount was plucked out of "thin air" and questioned why $10 million of the settlement should go to the lawyers who filed the case:
Oy! It is the behavior like that squashed by Judge Seeborg in this case that make ALL lawyers look terrible. The fact that neither plaintiffs' counsel nor Facebooks attorneys even contemplated just how ridiculous a potential award of $10M in fees in a case where there would be $0 distributed the victorious (at least in settlement) class is simply stunning!
Sometimes as a lawyer, it gets tiresome being vilified from what feels like all sides. But then fellow members of the bar go and pull boneheaded moves like this and it is obvious how lawyers get such a bad reputation. >(
