[StBernard] Your right to choose

[Westley Annis]

Denise,

You have just hit upon a very tricky subject, it took sixteen pages of
legalese to spell it out.

To put it in plain English, or as much as I can do without any legal
training, Mr. Torres, in his very modest generosity, asked the court to give
him 15% of any settlement for Attorneys' Fees and another 7% for costs, for
a nice 22% of any settlement.  So much for looking out for residents.

While granting the set-asides, as they are called, Judge Fallon did reduce
the numbers.  He has ordered set-asides of 10% for fees and 2% for costs,
setting the total set-aside at 12%.  These monies are to be deposited into
an interest-bearing account, which no one can withdraw money from without an
order from Judge Fallon.

When the class is finally settled, Judge Fallon is suppose to decide upon a
grand-total that Sidney is supposed to be paid and that is when funds will
be released from the account.  If there is more in the account than what he
pays Sidney, those who paid into the account will get a refund (don't hold
your breath).

If you hired your own attorney, or otherwise incurred costs on your own
(i.e., paid for your own oil samples), you can deduct any court costs and
any monies paid to physicians, hospitals, etc. (I'm assuming this would also
include the oil samples) before calculating the 12%. 

Any settlements made on or after march 27 are subject to the set-aside.

Unless I'm reading something wrong, it looks as though everyone is subject
to set-aside, and not, as rumored on NOLA.com, to be just for people who are
outside of Murphy's map but inside of the class map.  Maybe someone here who
understands the legalese can find something that says otherwise in this
paragraph:

Quote:
This obligation attaches in the following instances:
The set-aside shall apply to cases currently pending or later filed in,
transferred
to, or removed to, this Court as well as unfiled cases treated as the
consolidated
case Patrick Joseph Turner v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., Civil Action No.
05-4206,
and includes claimants who reside within the class boundary who are included
in
the class action or who have opted out of the class action and are
represented by
counsel. This set-aside applies to all settlements made and judgments
entered on
or after the date on which this Order is signed. The set-aside in these
cases shall
be twelve (12) percent of the "gross monetary recovery." Ten (10) percent
shall
be deemed fees to be subtracted from the attorneys' fees portion of
individual fee
contracts, and two (2) percent shall be deemed costs to be subtracted from
the
client portion of individual fee contracts.
Unquote:

Although I have read the full order, available at
<"http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/MurphyOil/Orders/O032706_277.pdf"> or 
<"http://tinyurl.com/gdtss">, and understand the arguments for the
set-asides, I don't agree with it.

In my mind, Sidney made a business decision to pursue a class-action lawsuit
against Murphy Oil.  Part of any business decision is weighing the fact that
he might be wrong and lose money.  I do not think he should be getting any
money from the people who decided they did not want him to represent them
or, because of some other reason, were not able to settle with Murphy before
this order was signed.

At the very least, it should be limited to those who are outside of the
Murphy Map but inside of the class map, since these are the only people that
Sidney may be able to say he has helped.

Westley


-----Original Message-----


Ok, now I have heard it all, i was told that if you settle with Murphy you
now have to pay a class action lawyer 7% of what murphy will settle with you
for because said lawyers are mad because sooo many are opting out of
law-suit.  It seems that said lawyer has again taken away our right to
choose.  First by making everyone automatically a part of the class action,
and now if you choose to opt out, you still have to pay them 7% of what you
get.   All the papers I keep receiving from the class action lawyers offices
all state that it is being done for the citizens of the parish, well when
citizens of the parish choose not to be part of the class action and still
must pay part of their money, how is it being done for the parish citizens.
Always considered this a free country with everyone having the right to
choose, now seems that one can lose those rights without ever talking to
anyone.  
 
I do pose a question to any class action lawyer that may be reading this.
Everyone pretty much nows what is being offered by Murphy if you test
positive, however I have never heard what the class action lawyers are
trying to offer everyone.  I know the all might dollars draws alot of
attention for people, so the lawyers have to understand do you settle for a
sure thing or do you take the gamble and maybe get a little bit from the law
suit.       
 
Thanks for letting me vent.  Keep up the good work Westley.
 
Denise