Terry Case v. Bank of Oklahoma, N.A.

Case Summary: 09-MD-02036

This case is part of a group of nationwide class action lawsuits filed to recover insufficient funds charges caused by the policy of many banks called “High-to-Low Debit Card Transaction Sequencing.” This is where the bank clears the largest debits first, no matter when they were made or come in to the bank, which then causes the account to have insufficient funds to pay numerous small debits on which the bank then charges overdraft fees.

Plaintiff (on behalf of a class of approximately 270,000 customers) filed suit in federal district court in Oklahoma in 2009 alleging that the Bank of Oklahoma (which includes Bank of Oklahoma, N.A., Bank of Arkansas, N.A., Bank of Albuquerque, N.A., Bank of Arizona, N.A., Bank of Kansas City, N.A., Bank of Texas, N.A., and Colorado State Bank and Trust, N.A.) had engaged in unfair and deceptive overdraft fee practices costing customers tens of millions of dollars. This suit was then added to 24 other similar suits across the United States against other banks in what is called a “multi-district litigation,” all of which were transferred and assigned to Judge King in federal district court in Miami.

Bank of Oklahoma decided to settle this suit (along with two others in state court in Oklahoma) for $19,000,000. This represents about 46% of the overdraft fees incurred by the class. This video is of the hearing before the court to approve the settlement agreement and attorney fees for the 40 law firms involved in the suit. It will inform the viewer of how someone goes about getting notice to and approval from a class of plaintiffs. The attorneys were paid 29.4% of the settlement as their fee, or $5,586,000. The remaining amount, $13,414,000 were paid to the class members on November 6, 2012. This settlement is the 15th of the 25 class action suits filed.

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