Reflections on the Weiss sentence

So Mel Weiss got 30 months. Possibly he deserves this, and I’m not going to use this space to sing his praises. But I want to recap a couple of arguments Bruce Kobayashi and I have been making for awhile that put this in perspective.

First, whatever one thinks about class actions, it’s still a legitimate business, and Weiss and Lerach were among the best at it. As Bruce and I argue in Class Action Lawyers as Lawmakers, these lawyers make valuable contributions to the production of law, particularly through their complaints. We suggest ways the law might provide better incentives by protecting class action lawyers' investments in their complaints. The kickbacks can be understood as a form of (illegitimate) self-help. That doesn’t mean they should be excused, but it does point to this broader policy issue.

Second, the positive role of class action lawyers suggests that the kickbacks, though wrong, may not have harmed class members. Mike Perino disagrees. Watch for more on this in a forthcoming post.

Third, as Bruce and I discuss in The Hypocrisy of the Milberg Indictment, the kickbacks these lawyers were convicted for are functionally similar to the “payments” prosecutors make to witnesses all the time in the form of promises of leniency. Both types of payments compensate witnesses and plaintiffs for their time and trouble. The critical difference, of course, is that the prosecutors (hopefully) make full disclosure and get court approval. Weiss and Lerach couldn’t disclose because the payments they made are illegal. Bruce and I recommend changing the law from prohibition to disclosure. This would, among other things, enable the courts to better police these payments.

Weiss and Lerach may have gotten what they had coming, but we shouldn't let the celebrating obscure the deeper policy lessons.

Comments

[silo76]

Weiss got 30 months, while Jamie Olis got 192 months (24.3 years) in March 04 sentence and it took 2 and 1/2 years before it was reduced to 72 months. Jamie Olis' wife and 4 and 1/2 year old dauthter as well as his his mom and dad had to live with that 24.3 sentence over his (and their heads) unitl it reduced to 72 months in the autumn of 2006. About 30 months living in that frame of mind or draconian sentence.
Jamie Olis did not make a buck off Project Alpha.
Sleepless in Kileen TX