Moore, et al. v. CELLCO Partnership, et al.
3:09-cv-04592-FLW-LHG, United States District Court, District of New Jersey
Judge Approves National Class Action Settlement Against Verizon Wireless Totaling Over $55 million
A New Jersey Federal Court Judge granted final approval of a settlement totaling in excess of $55 million in the case of In Re: Verizon Wireless Data Charges Litigation. The settlement of this Multi-District Litigation (MDL) proceeding encompassed thirty-one cases filed in multiple jurisdictions throughout the country that were transferred to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey for coordinated pretrial proceedings. Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, LLP (“FBBC”) was appointed Lead Class Counsel to represent all of the cases in the settlement.
In approving the settlement, the Judge noted “it was the vigorous efforts of the Foley firm that led to the proposed settlement.” The Judge stated that “lead counsel negotiated a sizeable settlement within a reasonable amount of time since the start of the litigation. Because of those timely efforts, the class will benefit more,” and that FBBC was “skilled and experienced in litigating these types of class action cases.” The case at its core was a consumer class action for violations of federal and state law in which it was alleged that defendant Verizon Wireless erroneously and/or improperly billed data charges to customers who subscribed to certain data plans. In each of the cases, the plaintiffs allege that Verizon Wireless billed them for data services (generally in increments of $1.99) that they never authorized or received.