CLASS LAWSUIT - INTERESTED?
My reflections after meeting with a class lawsuit lawyer
As a Minibond (and I think this applies to other similar products also) victim, I only started my involvement by going to the Speakers' Corner two weeks ago on Saturday. It was great to have Mr. Tan organizing this and providing us with a lot of information. We even have a speaker coming from MAS at the very first meeting.
The current approach is to have victims complain to their banks/FI. Then, if not satisfactory, escalate that to FIDReC for amount up to $50,000. [There are talks about raising the amount but one of the attendees of the meeting below said he called FIDReC and the answer is still up to $50,000 so far.]
Then, I read about the various email streams of people following this process going to the bank/FI. One person said there are five pages of forms to fill out and then you have to sign and submit to the bank/FI. Some said the bank/FI filled it out for him and he regreted because the banks are against you, not for you.
I have not done this complain process myself. Why? Because going into a bank/FI sitting across from their lawyer or lawyer-trained personnel is like going in naked! Not only that, whatever you said or induced to say, will be used against you.
That is why at our second gathering at the Speakers' Corner last Saturday, I made some handout trying to pull all the people who are interested in evaluating the feasibility of class lawsuits together. I said feasibility because I had a lot of questions in my mind, just like most of you, as to whether that is the best way to go.
Coincidentally, a lawyer called Leonard Loo, Managing Partner of Leonard Loo & Co, was on site and many people approached him on the possibility of class lawsuit and I submitted my name also. He was featured in Channelnewsasia.com and also the evening Chinese newspaper. I don't think it is appropriate for me to include his email address here as I am not trying to advertise for him (and you can choose your own lawyer - I am merely sharing my experience with you and I think others would probably be similar). Anyone interested in contacting him can email to me at my hotmail.com address of hk5d@hotmail.com and I will relay privately.
On Sunday, I got a call from the law firm scheduling the group consultation with me. As it turned out, there were so many people that we had to spread the meetings over several days and several groups a day.
So, I am writing this right after I finished the meeting and as soon as I got home. In fact, before the meeting, I wrote a one-pager of questions for the lawyer after sharing with people in our group. And the lawyer compiled an FAQ based on the list of questions.
One thing which I would not discuss here is the legal strategy. Rather, I would try to address some of the high level questions we discussed:
· Should I go through the complaint to bank/FI process or even the FIDReC process myself first? There are many factors to consider. One of them is this process limits to $50,000 so far. Even if to be raised higher, do you feel comfortable facing lawyer or lawyer-trained bank/FI personnel yourself? The class lawsuit process will by-pass this complain/escalation process.
· How much would it cost? It depends on the number of people participating. A law firm would typically ask for an initial deposit of $1,000. Given the potential victims number 10,000 in
· Would the legal fees be proportional to my investments? No, because the amount of paper work and process is similar whether you are investing one more zero or not.
· Is it worth the legal fees? The first question I asked myself is: do I think I can do a better job as an untrained legal person than a lawyer? Especially we are talking about a total investment in the magnitude of $500 million across all the victims. If the class lawsuit was justified for a social club, e.g., the $500 million is huge in comparison! So, I asked myself another way: do I think by using a lawyer, I can increase my recovery by an additional $1,000 (or whatever the legal fee is, you fill in the blank)? The answer is obvious.
· This process is particularly important because in
· For those people who don't participate in the class lawsuit and do not pay, would they get to participate in the settlement/award? No.
· Can one join the class lawsuit later? Those who start the first wave or risk more likely have advantage.
· Class lawsuit has another advantage also: if we got multiple people experiencing similar misleading sales process, it would just provide the court with more support that people are mis-led.
· Of course, the ultimate downside would be getting nothing back even after you spend the legal fee. You need to make your own assessment taking into consideration whether you truely think you have been mis-led.
In fact, after I finished the initial free consultation, a reporter interviewed me outside the law office. She asked me how I feel compared to when I walked in. I said when I walked into the group meeting, I had a lot of questions in my mind. When I walked out, I felt a lot clearer and a sign of relief. On my way driving home, I asked myself why? The best way to summarize it is: I am tired of playing DIY lawyer myself!
So, if you have not consulted a lawyer, why not attend one since initial consultation is usually free.
Here is a link to the Channel News article:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/383040/1/.html
Patrick Lung
hk5d@hotmail.com
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