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24 Rev. Litig. 609 (2005)
The Professional Objector and Revised Rule 23: Protecting Voice Rights While Limiting Objector Abuse

handle is hein.journals/rol24 and id is 617 raw text is: The Professional Objector and Revised Rule 23: Protecting Voice Rights While Limiting Objector Abuse Mike Absmeier* I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 609 II. CRITICISMS OF SETTLING OBJECTORS ARE OVERSTATED ....... 613 A. The Nuisance Value of Objections .................................. 613 B. The Transaction Cost of Objectors ................................. 616 C. Objector Side Settlements ................................................ 620 D. Objectors and Ethical Concerns ..................................... 625 III. THE PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING PROPOSALS ........................... 628 A. Class-Action Reforms ...................................................... 628 B . Sanctions ......................................................................... 629 C. Objection Screening and Due Process Concerns ........... 631 IV. REVISED RULE 23 AND THE PROFESSIONAL OBJECTOR ........... 634 V . C ONCLUSION ........................................................................... 636 I. INTRODUCTION In negative-value class actions,' lawyers often walk away with enormous fees while class members have their claims extinguished in exchange for small monetary recoveries or even coupons valuable only if redeemed through the purchase of the defendant's product.2 The typical class member in these negative- value class actions generally lacks both the financial incentive and the information required to monitor the actions of class counsel . * JD Candidate, 2005. The University of Texas School of Law. 1. A negative-value class action is one in which the individual claims are so small that individual litigation would be economically irrational. See John C. Coffee, Class Action Accountability: Reconciling Exit, Voice, and Loyalty in Representative Litigation, 100 COLUM. L. REv. 370, 429-32 (2000) (discussing negative-value class actions). 2. See generally, Susan P. Koniak & George M. Cohen, Under Cloak of Settlement, 82 VA. L. REv. 1051, 1053-57 (1996) (discussing abuses by class- action lawyers); Lawrence W. Schonbrun, Class Actions: The New Ethical Frontier, MANHATTAN INST. FOR POLICY RESEARCH, at http://www.manhattan- institute.org/htm1cjm_30.htm (last visited Feb. 8, 2004) (stating that [l]awyers may walk off with millions in fees while class members individually receive pennies on the dollar for alleged harms). 3. See Edward Brunet, Class Action Objectors: Extortionist Free Riders or Fairness Guarantors?, 2003 U. CHI. LEGAL F. 403, 428 (2003) (stating that there is simply no reason to think that the small stakes class member will possess either

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