this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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And the lawyers walk away with a nice $181 million dollars...
Seems fair...
I mean they did do all the work.
$181m of work?
Collectively between many lawyers since 2018?
Right, this sort of thing can involve a giant team of lawyers and paralegals pouring over documents and case law. The next big case they take on may be years away from a successful settlement (if they even get one), and they need to float on that money. That said, the top partners of the firm are definitely getting a payday.
Wouldn't be shocked if that was their business model. Trying to look up the plaintiffs it seemed like they were represented by a firm that did a lot of mesothelioma cases.
plus court fees, travel, research, office space, etc
You dropped this: /s
Who tf do you think litigated the case??
Who tf you think was ripped off?
The broader Facebook userbase, likely including the lawyers. This was years of work for many lawyers.
The real issue here is that 725 mil isn't enough of a punishment for how massive Meta is. They net more than that in a month.
No company on earth would just write off $725M. These are the sort of people who drop a business card in a fishbowl at a restaurant for a "contest" so that their lunch is a tax deductible business expense.
If Facebook made $726M selling that data though they'd do it Sun-Sat. Hell if they made $725M and the math figured they had a 49.9% chance of getting caught they'd do the same again.
Unfortunately, this is the best our legal system has for punishing companies. It hurts them in the thing that they love the most, which is something. Then the lawyers get a payday and the average person in the class action gets a small slice of what's left.