Look what I got in today's mail

I am a plantiff in a Class Action lawsuit against Amazon.com. The law firm of Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins LLP are representing me.

Enclosed in the envelope I got today was a copy of the lawsuit and proposed settlement. Of course it's wriitten in a way most non-legal trained minds will find it next to impossible to understand. The gist of it the best I can interpert the suit is that the CA suit against Amazon is because the bookseller unfairly inflated their stock price. The settlement is for ten cents per every share I held some time after October 30, 1998. If Lerach & Company gets the legal fee they propose, the ten cents becomes seven.

Wow seven cents a share. Makes me want to immediately dig through seven year old financial records of mine so I can get a $7.00 check. See I don't have those shares any more, nor am I with the broker I used in 1998 to purchase them.

Of course I could ask to be a paid plantiff like Seymour Lazar of Palm Springs CA. Oops I may go to jail then but the 2.8 could make me nicely rich for a few days.

If you want to read more about these shyster lawyers led by Bill Lerach, read this blog post of mine or The Business Week article which I post part of below.

Outside the Beltway Trackback and Mudville Gazette

NEWS ANALYSIS
By Peter Burrows
Payback Time for Bill Lerach?

The king of shareholder lawsuits against Silicon Valley firms may be caught up in a federal probe of allegedly improper payments to plaintiffs Back in 1990, Alan Shugart took on one of Silicon Valley's most detested antagonists: Attorney William Lerach.

At the time, Shugart was CEO of disk-drive maker Seagate Technology (STX ), which Lerach's law firm had repeatedly sued for securities fraud, seemingly on the basis of little more than an unexpected drop in its stock price.

After trying unsuccessfully to launch an industry group called Enough is Enough, Shugart railed against Lerach to any media outlet that would listen. "A LOT OF ENEMIES."

Once, after appearing on an hourlong national news show with Lerach, Shugart got a letter from his nemesis. Enclosed was the lawyer's business card, on which Lerach had scrawled: "Dear Al -- There's more coming." Now, the tide may have turned.

Securities lawyers say that a federal probe involving Lerach's former law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, may also be aimed at Lerach, who left Milberg a year ago to co-found Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.

Lerach has retained the services of noted San Francisco attorney John Keker of Keker & Van Nest, says a source familiar with the proceedings. Says one securities lawyer of Lerach, "He's a high-profile guy, and he's made a lot of enemies."

No charges have been levied against Milberg Weiss or Lerach. But a federal grand jury recently indicted one of the plaintiffs in multiple civil cases brought by Milberg Weiss against companies between 1984 and 2001. The indictment alleges that the plaintiff, Seymour Lazar, received "kickbacks" for working with an undisclosed firm so it could quickly file suits before other shareholder law firms could file.

COSTLY ACTIONS

Sources say the undisclosed firm is Milberg Weiss, which issued a statement saying the indictment is "baseless" and "unfairly implicates the firm in the wrongdoing alleged against Lazar." Efforts to reach Lazar's attorney for comment for this story were unsuccessful.

Silicon Valley execs who have grappled with Lerach are already feeling more than a little vindicated. Although government reforms stopped the practice in the early 90s, the ability of Milberg Weiss to find a willing plaintiff to sue within hours of an unexpected stock drop raised suspicions with companies for years.

Faced with Lerach's aggressive tactics and the skill of his staff of lawyers, companies often would settle, rather than incur years of legal fees fighting a Milberg Weiss suit. They complained bitterly that Lerach was preying on legitimate companies which happened to have volatile stocks -- often tech-related outfits.

Indeed, a judge removed the lead plaintiff from a Milberg suit against a tech firm called Terayon in 2004, questioning whether the plaintiff had helped drive down Terayon's stock by selling its stock short.

"LOVE TO SUE HIM."

Based on such examples, companies came to despise Lerach. "He's just not a nice person," Shugart says to this day. "The government is 15 years too late on this one."

Privately, one Silicon Valley CEO says he would look at what legal recourse his firm might have to get back money spent defending against Milberg Weiss suits, if Lerach were now to be charged -- and ultimately found culpable -- for any improper conduct. Says this CEO: "I'd love to sue him -- although most people would be happy enough to see him in jailstripes."