Form Letter to "Opt Out" of the Nissan Class Action by Oct28

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Did you send in the "Opt-Out" letter?

  • Yes I have sent it, as I do not wish to be part of this civil class action

    Votes: 61 57.0%
  • No, I will remain in the class action

    Votes: 46 43.0%

  • Total voters
    107
My thanks as well for a cogent statement on the many problems with this proposed settlement. I opted out for many of the reasons he outlined. However, I question some of the assertions, stated as facts, in his arguments regarding range and interpretation of the capacity bars.
 
TomT said:
"Settlements such as this" is class action lawsuits of this ilk... Take a look at LexisNexis. It is littered with class action lawsuits where there were substantial errors, injustices or travesties... I would love to be proven wrong, but I'll bet that this settlement is approved as is...

What I object to is your ridiculously cheap -- and lazy -- shot characterizing all judges as lazy. I've seen some lazy judges in my time, but they are a small minority. I don't have the same warm and fuzzy feelings for the lawyers in this case, so feel free to fire away at them.
 
It's worth noting that the Nissan lawsuit was filed at the United States District Court for the Central District in Los Angeles. Cases from the this District are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which the Honorable Alex Kozinski happens to oversee.
batteryproblemmnl


91040 said:
However, I question some of the assertions, stated as facts, in his arguments regarding range and interpretation of the capacity bars.
Would love to comment, but I'm not done analyzing the letter yet. I read the original complaint filed last summer several times to make sure that I'm familiar with it.
 
surfingslovak said:
It's worth noting that the Nissan lawsuit was filed at the United States District Court for the Central District in Los Angeles. Cases from the this District are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which the Honorable Alex Kozinski happens to oversee.
batteryproblemmnl


91040 said:
However, I question some of the assertions, stated as facts, in his arguments regarding range and interpretation of the capacity bars.
Would love to comment, but I'm not done analyzing the letter yet. I read the original complaint filed last summer several times to make sure that I'm familiar with it.

he will have to recuse himself.
 
surfingslovak said:
It's worth noting that the Nissan lawsuit was filed at the United States District Court for the Central District in Los Angeles. Cases from the this District are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which the Honorable Alex Kozinski happens to oversee.
I have no reason to doubt what you say. It does present some interesting future and possible recusals should the rather egregious settlement stand as is, and the subsequent appeals.

I am surprised the industry magazine press has not come out with some kind of scandalous investigation. Maybe that's next.
 
Excluding this Nissan class action, I have been involved in more than a dozen other class actions... In all cases except two, the judge took the easy - not correct - way out and in two cases, clearly had not even read any of the submitted briefs... So, my statement is also based on personal experience. Sorry, but in many respects the U.S. legal system is a sham...

oakwcj said:
What I object to is your ridiculously cheap -- and lazy -- shot characterizing all judges as lazy. I've seen some lazy judges in my time, but they are a small minority. I don't have the same warm and fuzzy feelings for the lawyers in this case, so feel free to fire away at them.
 
oakwcj said:
The settlement approval hearing was held this morning. The judge has taken the request to approve the settlement under submission. Only one of those filing an objection to the settlement was represented by counsel. His name is Alex Kozinski. An Alex Kozinski [aka "the big Kozinski"] is the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He submitted a well-written, colorful, and persuasive objection. Judge Kozinski is also known for writing colorful opinions. LEAF owner Kozinski lives in Rancho Palos Verdes. So does Judge Kozinski. If anyone on this forum attended the hearing this morning, I'd really like to know more about Mr. Kozinski.
The big news is Judge Kozinski's objection.
But any information on how many people opted out and also how many objected :?:
 
oakwcj said:
BTW, his LEAF's name is Pearl.

Hey! That's my Leaf's name too! :D


Wow, that's some serious reading. Very well presented objection! After 23 months/21,000 miles, I'm at <80% capacity, so I for one am hopeful that I'll be able to take advantage of a free battery replacement, especially if its the new heat-tolerant chemistry. I don't think I need this class action lawsuit for that.
 
TimLee said:
oakwcj said:
The settlement approval hearing was held this morning. The judge has taken the request to approve the settlement under submission. Only one of those filing an objection to the settlement was represented by counsel. His name is Alex Kozinski. An Alex Kozinski [aka "the big Kozinski"] is the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He submitted a well-written, colorful, and persuasive objection. Judge Kozinski is also known for writing colorful opinions. LEAF owner Kozinski lives in Rancho Palos Verdes. So does Judge Kozinski. If anyone on this forum attended the hearing this morning, I'd really like to know more about Mr. Kozinski.
The big news is Judge Kozinski's objection.
But any information on how many people opted out and also how many objected :?:

AFAIK, the number of people opting out hasn't been disclosed. When I looked through the document list, I saw 6-10 objections, but the only one I accessed and read was Kozinski's. The original judge assigned to the case recused himself after Kozinski filed his objection, probably because they have known each other for a long time. The new judge is Beverly Reid O'Connell, who was appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Senate earlier this year. She was a Superior Court Judge in L.A. County for about 15 years, but I had never heard of her until yesterday. The only thing I can be sure of is that she will handle this case very carefully.
 
oakwcj said:
AFAIK, the number of people opting out hasn't been disclosed. When I looked through the document list, I saw 6-10 objections, but the only one I accessed and read was Kozinski's.
Do you have a link to the document list, or do you have access to the list from somewhere inside the court documents firewall :?:
Surely if this was the hearing to approve the tentative settlement, there had to be some document that detailed the number of people that opted out :?: Beyond a certain level of people opting out the settlement would not be considered a class :?:
 
TimLee said:
oakwcj said:
AFAIK, the number of people opting out hasn't been disclosed. When I looked through the document list, I saw 6-10 objections, but the only one I accessed and read was Kozinski's.
Do you have a link to the document list, or do you have access to the list from somewhere inside the court documents firewall :?:
Surely if this was the hearing to approve the tentative settlement, there had to be some document that detailed the number of people that opted out :?: Beyond a certain level of people opting out the settlement would not be considered a class :?:

All of the Federal Courts are part of the electronic filing system, known as PACER. Anyone can open an account and access the documents for 10 cents a page. If your balance is under $15 for a calendar quarter, the fee is waived. You can sign up at http://www.pacer.gov. The Central District of California records can be accessed from:

https://ecf.cacd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/ShowIndex.pl

The case number is CV12-08238.

I believe that the names of those who opted out are only made available to counsel, although I'm not sure about that. Nissan has the option to back out if more than 5% of the class opts out, but they are fighting to have the settlement approved, so I'm pretty sure the opt-out number is below the magic 900+ number.
 
oakwcj said:
All of the Federal Courts are part of the electronic filing system, known as PACER. Anyone can open an account and access the documents for 10 cents a page. If your balance is under $15 for a calendar quarter, the fee is waived. You can sign up at http://www.pacer.gov. The Central District of California records can be accessed from:

https://ecf.cacd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/ShowIndex.pl

The case number is CV12-08238.

I believe that the names of those who opted out are only made available to counsel, although I'm not sure about that. Nissan has the option to back out if more than 5% of the class opts out, but they are fighting to have the settlement approved, so I'm pretty sure the opt-out number is below the magic 900+ number.
Thanks :!: Extremely helpful :!:
If only 6 - 10 people objected, I'm afraid you are probably correct that <900+ people opted out. :cry:
 
I emailed Judge Kozinski's wife for information about the hearing on Monday. She told me that she hadn't attended the hearing, but that Nissan claimed that if the settlement were approved it planned to withdraw the protections of the enhanced warranty from class members who opted out of the settlement. I personally think this is a bluff. Judge Kozinski filed a short supplemental brief today arguing that Nissan cannot pull the warranty for various reasons, including certain provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code. Judge Kozinski said that the newly assigned judge was clearly up to speed on the issues.

Judge Kozinski's wife referred me to a Reuters article about the case:

http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-fra...rcuit-chief-judge-kozinski-is-class-objector/
 
This is completely fascinating. I'm so glad that the Judge is on our side.

I don't see how Nissan can withdraw the warranty protections for those who opted out - their notification for the warranty makes NO reference of it being the result of a class action settlement. I'd be willing to sue them again just based on that (and will, if necessary!)
 
Thank you, Mike. The following caught my attention. Anyone would want to hazard a guess if this figure refers to all opt-outs?

Alison Frankel said:
(A previous version of the story erroneously said there were 134 objectors. There were 13.)
Oh, and here is Nissan's response to the objection letter. It's worth noting that this thread has seen significant traffic from Sedgwick LLP, Nissan's counsel in this case.

http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/files/2013/11/nissanclassaction-responsetokozinski.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
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