Editor’s Note: This post is a joint submission with BakerHostetler’s Class Action Lawsuit Defense blog.
On November 5, 2013, a California federal district court preliminarily approved a revised coupon-based class action settlement agreement between plaintiffs and OfficeMax (see Order Granting Preliminary Approval of Revised Class Action Settlement Agreemeent). As reported here in September, the court rejected a prior proposed settlement between the plaintiffs, who had accused OfficeMax of illegally recording customer zip codes, and OfficeMax on the ground that the agreement violated the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) because the calculation was based on the issuance of merchandise vouchers that might never be redeemed.
The revised agreement, still based on a voucher payout, reserves a final decision on attorney fees until the vouchers actually have been redeemed. A final approval hearing is scheduled for March 2014.