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IOLTA asks Massachusetts high court to remand settlement distribution over alleged Rule 23(e) notice lapse
Summary
The Massachusetts IOLTA Committee told the Supreme Judicial Court it received notice of a 2021 class-action settlement only after final approval and seeks a remand or limited vacatur so the court can permit IOLTA to be heard about roughly $500,000 in alleged residual funds; defendants say any error was harmless and the trial judge already addressed distribution.
The Massachusetts IOLTA Committee urged the Supreme Judicial Court to remand or vacate part of a 2021 class-action settlement so the committee can be heard about whether residual funds should be redirected to IOLTA rather than returned to the defendants.
"The very first time that the committee received any notice of this matter was two years after the final hearing on approval of the settlement agreement" and only at a later hearing before Judge Howe, counsel Doug Salvesen told the court, arguing that absence of timely notice violated Rule 23(e).
Salvesen said the settlement documents presented to a prior trial judge (Judge Liu) included a $4,000,000 cash settlement with a paragraph capping any return to defendants at $500,000 — a guardrail Judge Liu used in assessing the deal’s reasonableness. He told the justices the version later enforced by Judge Howe omitted that cap and effectively allowed more money to revert to defendants by reallocating the cap to a…
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