To: FilerBill who wrote (47430 ) 2/10/1998 12:19:00 PM From: FranW Respond to of 58324
TO ALl: IOM law suit Part 2 So Barrack, Rodos & Bacine has filed a number of cases in the last couple of weeks, and has posted on the web-page its interest in hearing from the affected shareholders. Further, from what I can tell, lawyers may have been cold calling (or cold e-mailing) some of the posters on these boards (a practice which may not be entirely in keeping with legal ethics, but I'm sure I must be mistaken about some part of that;) ), so somebody has shown a salutary interest in the interactive medium. Okay, let's interact. If you are a member of one of the classes which this firm seeks to represent, you get to decide if you want this firm representing your interests. So, why not ask them for the following information: 1) Demand a copy of all their filings in the case, and to be on an e-mail list for future filings, especially including the application for attorneys' fees. There's no reason why these can't be e-mailed to you immediately upon their being filed. Upon filing, these are public documents, that are all created on computer and won't cost the firm one cent to e-mail to you. 2) Ask these fine, fine lawyers the terms of the last five or ten settlements they have negotiated for their class action clients. Again, these settlements have to be approved by a court and are public information, as are the fees the attorneys wind up with. You should determine what percentage of the settlement the attorneys pocketed (often around 30%, although attorneys are known to ask for much more), and how much total recovery there was for each share. If the firm won't answer that question, make a note of it, and see #4 below. 3) Ask who the other lawyers who have filed cases seeking to be lead counsel are, then determine what kinds of fees they have recently been part of. The fees requested by these attorneys are often in the range of $500 per hour. The reason for such a high amount is that these lawyers often claim to the courts that they are especially good at what they do, and deserve to be compensated at a multiple of other attorneys' work. You may be able to judge for yourself the quality of their work, based upon their willingness to respond to your requests. 4) Ask who the judge assigned to hear the case is. Get her or his address, and even e-mail address, if available. Be prepared to craft a letter to the court summarizing your determination of the responsiveness of these lawyers to your interests, and perhaps make a note of any concerns you may have with the compensation to be awarded at the end of the case. One of the dirty little secrets of these cases is that once a settlement is reached, the defendant company has no particular reason to fight for the plaintiffs' attorneys not to receive a high amount, as the award comes out of the settlement. There is therefore no one to argue before the judge that plaintiffs' counsel should not receive all that it wants. A letter or letters from shareholders to the court might well have influence on any final allocation of attorneys' fees. 5) These cases are rushed to court. Complaints are literally written within hours after CNBC breaks a story. There are, of course, a lot of inadvertent mistakes. If you receive a complaint that has been filed that has errors, or anything you don't agree with, write the attorneys. Copy the company on your letter if you desire that your alerting the attorneys that they have made any mistakes (which they have an ethical responsibility to correct) may not be sufficient. 6) The investor boards here at the Motley Fool and elsewhere will be used, if they are not already, both by the company and by the class action attorneys to help determine the state of mind of investors at certain points in time as to what risks were calculated by shareholders. If there was something posted on a board that undermines one of the complaints you see, alert the attorneys that they have not accurately described shareholder and marketplace knowledge of such a risk. 7) There are penalties assessed against attorneys for filing frivolous cases, or for failing to withdraw a case or any part of a case once it is known or should be known to be frivolous. If you are sent a complaint that contains any frivolous allegations, write the attorneys, and make sure to cite a written source of authority for your opinion. Again, copy the company on the letter so that the company's lawyers are alerted to the plaintiff's lawyers having knowledge that some or all of their case is baseless. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The above suggestions are questions which no ethical lawyer actually interested in serving his or her clients could object to answering. You can probably think of dozens of other questions that you would want answers to in determining whether you want to hire a lawyer to work for you, and if you are in one of the above effected classes, you are determining that. Indeed, you have been invited to share your thoughts. Here's the e-mail address, fire away: BARRACK@ix.netcom.com. ********************************** THE IOM Law suit address KNKslaw@AOl.COM Good luck to all Fran W