Posted on 03/06/2016 12:30:24 PM PST by Hostage
I looked into Trump University. It was active in the earlier 2000s when a housing boom and then bubble were in full swing. Nearly every person that paid for the training rated it highly and many made a lot of money in real estate.
But in 2008, many people lost money. In 2008, there was a massive real estate collapse due to a once-in-a-century banking collapse.
Is Donald Trump responsible for the real estate collapse of the late 2000s? Of course not. Is he then responsible for people losing money? No.
Greedy lawyers filed for a class action. They certified from the enrollment lists of Trump U a total of 30,000. That does not mean in the least that 30,000 persons think they were scammed by Trump U. Very few think they were scammed.
What it means is that these lawyers (whose backgrounds are found to be unethical) had cheaply printed on small cards a mailer to 30,000 recipients stating that a class action had been filed against Trump U. Such cards always state that the recipient has a chance to opt out in case they wish to pursue their own lawsuit. In almost every such filing, more than 90% throw away the card and so they are opted in by default. And in every one of these cases, the litigants collect very very little while the lawyers take away millions.
The case has dragged on for many many years which indicates that plaintiffs are filing continuances because they can’t get the case together, they are trying to pad their billing or they are hoping to harass their way to a settlement.
That the media would bring the plaintiff’s side of the case to the spotlight to have it tried in public is disgusting. As far as I can tell they have not brought any of the defendant’s facts of the case to the public, only the plaintiffs (who are for all intents and purposes the lawyers). This is beyond disgusting, it is a lynching.
I heard Donald Trump on a video clip say in the debate that it would be very easy for him to settle the case out but he does not choose to because the case is not strong on the plaintiff’s side. But that didn’t stop Fox News from trying to damage Trump with pending litigation.
It would be like having news media report an old nuisance case on you and try and convict you in public without giving you due process. I don’t think you would be happy to see that happen and I’d bet you wouldn’t be able to hold yourself together as well as Donald did in the debate.
Until there is a court ruling, this case means absolutely nothing. We don’t rule against someone before a ruling is made and that is what was attempted here by Megyn Kelly. She is disgusting.
I saw somewhere that these two lawyers are scam artists and went to prison. No longer can even practice law. Their scam was to sue, never wanting a trial only to settle out of court. They made millions. Some of what they did was illegal, hence prison. Go after deep pockets, threaten them with a huge lawsuit, then settle. Sounds like Jesse Jackson M.O. I think this Trump U suit was their last one before losing their law license. No wonder Trump wouldn’t settle.
I don’t remember their names but you can google this suit and find it I think. My best memory of this, I could have some of it wrong, but that was the jist of it I think.
No. A potential litigant receives a cheap mailer card in the postal mail that states a class action lawsuit has been filed against X and the named postal recipient is indicated to be a member of the class unless they choose to OPT OUT by notifying the law firm etc etc etc.
Most mailer recipients throw the card in the trash because they are not going to take the time to write the law firm to opt out.
Because recipients do not respond, the law firm goes ahead and deems them opting in, and includes them in the class.
So it’s very likely that more than 90% and usually much more than 90% threw their mailer in their trash and they don’t care what happens because the payouts are usually so small as to not make it worth the time to be involved.
Usually state laws limit the amount that lawyers can pay themselves from a class-action to say about 15% to 25%. Therefore, the larger the class, the larger the payout to the lawyers, so they are motivated to make the class as large as they can even though more than 90% of the class doesn’t give a damn.
Further, any unclaimed funds from a class-action settlement are put into safe-keeping by the plaintiff lawyers who collect interest and fees on the unclaimed accounts. It’s almost always a racket for the lawyers. It has the one benefit in that it keeps some companies honest and that’s about it.
OK, I understand that. I’ve received a couple of these type things (not for TU) over the years and you are right ... they went straight into the trash. In one case, I think I later received a check for $5 or so from Netflix because I was part of a class action lawsuit that I didn’t intentionally join.
But my question is this ... if 30,000 of these cards went out and 90% of the folks didn’t bother but were signed up automatically, why isn’t the number of litigants 27,000 rather than the 5,000 reported? Where did the other 22,000 go?
Which brings me back to my original question -— how many people actually signed up for Trump University? If 5,000 of a million are dissatisfied, then their 98% satisfaction rate isn’t too far out of line. But that depends entirely on the number of people who took the course.
> “But my question is this ... if 30,000 of these cards went out and 90% of the folks didn’t bother but were signed up automatically, why isn’t the number of litigants 27,000 rather than the 5,000 reported? Where did the other 22,000 go?”
Reports are all over the map.
Some are reporting that seminar fees were $30,000 when they were actually $1500.
Megyn Kelly stated at the debate her staff ‘found’ the class to be certified at 30,000 litigants, not 5,000. But Megyn Kelly can’t always be believed.
To get accurate numbers, one will need to go to the court network where the case was filed and use PACE or some other service to download the filings.
dynoman linked to several documents on the case and may know of others:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3405896/posts?page=54#54
Re: “This is such a nothing ...”
Denninger agrees:
So What About ‘Trump University’
2016-03-05 13:27 by Karl Denninger
It’s amusing to watch people latch onto something that they think is full of red meat and beat their heads against the wall pontificating on it, when there’s just no “there” there.
....................................
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231190
Good job.
Total specious.
GTS. Its there
People are dumb. Always position yourself to get their money.
placemark.
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