Far bigger than the payout to plaintiffs will be the fees sought by the lawyers who brought the class action. Mr. Lesser and his colleagues at 10 other law firms have asked for more than $1.3 million — compared with less than $30,000 that Take-Two Interactive’s lawyers say it will spend to resolve the claims for $5 to $35 each (and, sometimes, a sanitized copy of the game).
“It doesn’t typically go that way,” said Mary J. Davis, a law professor at the University of Kentucky who has studied this type of litigation. To have legal fees dwarf a settlement payout, she continued, “is sort of backwards.”
The company and the plaintiffs lawyers both point out that the company has also agreed to make an $860,000 charitable contribution.
The full article is interesting - especially the back half that talks about parents being more interested in protecting their children from a mini-game they can't unlock during normal play but not caring so much about the violence in it - but basically it looks like this case will be settled soon and the lawyers who harnessed the outrage will be getting the better end of the deal than those who were actually offended.
And yes, I'm aware I'm abusing both beverage analogies and internet memes in the title.
Lenny Briscoe would have an awesome quip for this, before the commerical break.
"What I'm saying is you should make friends with a few catasses, they smell funny but they're very helpful." -Calantus makes the best of a smelly situation.
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