In an order yesterday, Judge Pauley rejected the joint request of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Sprint to move forward on court approval of a $50 million settlement of the regulator’s investigation into the telecom company. The parties had submitted a proposed one-sentence joint motion for approval of a final judgment and settlement, and indicated that no further briefing would be provided. Judge Pauley was unimpressed.
How the Bureau believes a judge can evaluate the proposed settlement with a one sentence joint motion, no memorandum of law, and no declarations, eludes this Court. It is especially ironic, given the Bureau’s core mission as described on its website to “give consumers the information they need to understand the terms of their agreements …. ” See “About Us,” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, http://www.consumerfinance.gov/the-bureau/ (last visited May 19, 2015).
Judge Pauley ordered the parties to submit a motion as soon as practicable explaining why the “proposed settlement is fair, reasonable, and does not disserve the public interest.”