You May Be Owed: Recent Large Class Action Suits

When a group of people incurs the same issue from a particular product or company, they will sometimes take legal action against the defendant and sue as a group. At any one time, there can be hundreds of class action lawsuits taking place around the country or nationally.

Class action suits can be filed for a variety of reasons stemming from product malfunctions, breach of contract, or various illegalities. Today, we’ll take a look at several that are happening right now and how they are impacting those who have joined the lawsuits and the companies the suits are filed against.

Arby’s

In January of 2019, information was released to the public regarding a data breach at Arby’s restaurants between October 8th, 2016 and January 12th, 2017. During this breach, customers who made a purchase using their debit or credit cards potentially had their exposed and put them at risk for identity theft or fraud. The class-action lawsuit was begun due to claims that Arby’s did not properly secure their system or notify their customers fast enough when they discovered the problem.

The lawsuit affects five stores in Raleigh, NC, and Fayetteville, NC. Only consumers in the following states can join the lawsuit and must have proof of purchase:

Alabama
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Kentucky
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

If you wish to join the lawsuit, information is following:

Company: Arby’s
Reason: Data Breach
File By Date: 7/13/2019
Link: https://kccsecure.com/arbyssettlement/Claimant

Bancard

Members and merchants who received services from Bancard between August 31st, 2009 and March 31st, 2019 have secured a settlement of $15 million from a lawsuit against the company claiming they charged unauthorized fees. Merchants claimed that they were taken advantage of by Bancard with excessive fees and “mystery fees” being charged for each of their transactions, instead of just the standard percentage and usually charged by banks and payment processors. For those affected, they can either receive their payment via cash credit on future invoices or by electronic payment if they no longer utilize Bancard. Bancard has further agreed to revise its charging policies to make them more straightforward for their customers.

For more information on this lawsuit and to opt in to the lawsuit, information is below:

Company: Bancard
Reason: Credit Card Fees
File By Date: 8/15/2019
Link: https://secureweb.onlineclaimfilings.com/nab

Ford

For this class action suit against Ford, almost two million people are expected to be affected. It’s been found that the powershift dual clutch automatic transmission has been causing problems for a number of years in 2011-2016 Ford Fiestas and 2012-2016 Ford Focus’. Essentially, a “shudder” has been reported by drivers when changing from acceleration to stopping; this is then followed up with a strong vibration in the vehicle in the 1-2 upshift. The suit was filed because drivers of these cars have invested a lot of time and money into taking care of these problems, including:

Replacing output shafts
Replacing clutches
Updating softwares repeatedly
Replacing transmissions

Unfortunately, none of these repairs effectively resolved the problem for car owners. The manner in which the lawsuit is being handled is all over the map and differs from person to person; some car owners have even pulled out of the original lawsuit and are suing Ford individually. In the current class action lawsuit, however, Ford is paying out $200 to $2375 per person and offering discounts of $400 to $4650 per person towards purchasing a new Ford vehicle. Ford is also paying for software update visits, not to exceed $600.

If you’ve been affected by this problem, you can get more information on joining the lawsuit below:

Company: Ford
Reason: PowershiftTransmission Defect
File By Date: N/A
Link: https://www.fordtransmissionsettlement.com/submit-a-claim.aspx